The Nightingale
by begstealorborrow
Summary: It all started in a run down church hospital in Sicily. From the moment he first laid eyes on her he knew she was it. And he wasn't about to take 'no' for an answer.  Donny OC
1. One

The hallway of the large building was alive with chaos. Gurneys were flying down the halls; men were screaming and the stench of death and ethyl alcohol were lighting up the humid air. A pair of lace up high heeled shoes clicked down the hallway at a quick pace, sure of each step. The shoes moved up into a pair of trim legs in worn standard issue nylons, the nylon moved up into an olive drab dress, fitted and formed to the slender body it hugged tight. The girl stopped short in front of room 513 at the end of the hallway. Her light hazel eyes skimmed over the chart in her hand double checking the information.

A newly appointed Sergeant, 28 years old, multiple fractures and abrasions, the most serious of which was a badly broken leg. She tucked an unruly spiral curl behind her ear before she turned the handle on the door and stepped inside.

The man was sitting up straight in the bed, one arm in a sling tucked up against his broad chest, there were a few bandages and stitches across his arms and one stitched wound on the strong line of his jaw. He was handsome, he was very, very handsome. Not in the conventional way though, in a dark and brooding way, like the antiheroes in the romance novels the other nurses fawned over.

Just as she stepped in it looked as if he were about to say something as his eyebrows were furrowed and his mouth was open but as soon as she walked in he shut his mouth tight.

He wasn't prepared for her to walk in. He's been thinking he'd have some old crone for a nurse. He never counted on her. She was hell on heels and the most gorgeous thing he'd ever fuckin' seen. All slender curves and long curls.

"Good to see you're awake Sergeant." She stepped closer to the bed and put the chart down on the small side table next to him. "You've been out for quite a while."

He had been studying her face as she set his chart down. She had delicate features and a slightly olive complexion; her big cat slanted eyes were a strange mix of honey brown and yellow and dabs of green and framed thick with long dark lashes. He cleared his throat and finally found his voice for the first time since he'd woken up in this strange hospital this morning.

"Where am I and what the hell happened to me and why the fuck are you calling me Sergeant?" He couldn't help himself, his head was killing him and he was frustrated by his lack of memory.

She looked up into his face and her cat's eyes narrowed, "Language Sergeant, you may be a solider but I am a lady and you will speak to me as such."

He lowered his eyes sheepishly and mumbled out a half apology, he hadn't meant to be that short. "You're in Santa Marina's Ospedale in Palermo. You and your division were caught by a tank and your jeep was blown to pieces. You were wounded rather severely, your leg is broken very badly. I have heard that you and another officer pulled many of the other survivors to safety. You were appointed Sergeant while you were out. I'm sorry to not have mentioned that first off."

She spoke quickly and concisely. She was clearly American, and judging by her accent from the Northeast. She flitted towards the tall cabinet at the corner of his room and began pulling out medical supplies. She seemed to move fluidly, quick and deliberate. He couldn't help but stare a little at the line of her trim waist as it flowed down her little back to the gentle curve of her hip and the pert round ass poised at the top of her stockinged legs. It'd been months since he'd seen a woman, let alone one this pretty. He'd never seen a girl this pretty just standin' in front of him.

She turned back to his bedside and set out her supplies next to her as she perched herself on the edge of his bed. She noted how his dark eyes followed her every move as she pulled down his covers slightly to reach some of the wounds on him.

She could tell her close proximity was new for him. He cleared his throat and she could almost feel him searching for a topic for conversation as he studied her.

"What is your name?" He asked finally

"Nili Cohen." She said her voice softer as she gently swabbed one of his cuts. It stung like hell but he wouldn't let himself flinch, not in front of her.

"Nili..." He repeated her name and he seemed to contemplate it for a moment "The glory of Israel will not lie... That is a beautiful name." He knew well what her name meant.  
He had the phrase it came from tattooed on the inside of his left arm, she couldn't see it now; it was well bandaged, but it was there."

"Thank you. I assumed you were Jewish when I read your chart, Sergeant Donowitz."

"I am." He said nodding "You're American, aren't you Nili? Where're you from? And call me Donny."

She kept on with her workings and re-bandaged his wounds as she spoke with him. "I'm from the Bronx, Sergeant."

"You just broke my heart." He let a sly smile creep onto his face and she looked up with a questioning glance away from his arm

"Excuse me?"

"You're from New York, that means you must be a Yankees fan." For the first time since she entered the room she allowed herself to smile, she couldn't help it. The roguish smile on his face was infectious.

"Of course I am, my brother was drafted for the '41 team, at least he was before he enlisted." He noted her face darkened when she mentioned her brother. He knew what that meant, he'd seen that look before. Her brother was dead. He wanted to inquire further but decided against it.

"A pretty girl like you should be a Red Sox fan." Her smile almost returned but she quickly smoothed over her expression as she went back to tending his wounds.

"Do not try to pick me up Sergeant."

He chuckled a little at her and dropped back into his pillows "Why not? You got a man back in the Bronx? Maybe a Yankees player whackin' 'em outta the park in your name?"

His accent was so thick now she wondered how she hadn't noticed it before. She was working hard to suppress a blush and a smile for the handsome Boston boy laying in the bed next to her.

"No, but I don't want to get involved with any of you service men, your shelf life isn't particularly good."

"Well, you don't need to worry about shelf life with me, Nili Cohen. I'm from Boston, we're like fucking cockroaches."

She shot her head up and her eyes were narrowed again "Language, Sergeant."

He mumbled out another half apology and quieted down as he watched her tend him again. She was bent over him and he could see the long lines of her neck and the unruly mop of long black spiral curls. She had them pinned back in an attempt at the stylish coif the women in his pin ups wore, but her curls wouldn't seem to stay and they fell out and to the wayside framing her pretty little features.

She was working her way up his left arm and she started to unravel the bandage around his tattoo. He smiled to himself wondering what she would think when she reached it. She unraveled the last bandage and started to swab the wound with alcohol when she noticed the dark black ink above it. She reached out a finger and traced the Hebrew characters with her finger. He just watched, his breath hitching in his throat as she touched him.

"The glory of Israel shall not lie." She whispered quietly as she looked up into his dark featured face. "No wonder you knew my name. It's against the old laws for Jews to be tattooed..."

He cleared his throat and let out a slightly nervous chuckle "I know, but I got it when I enlisted. I'd heard about what those bast... Sorry, Nazis were doing to our people and I couldn't let it lie. It reminds me."

"It's beautiful." Her eyes were earnest and he noted that they shown with the first drops of tears. They held eyes for a split second and let smiles creep onto their faces before she seemed to remember herself and she quickly moved back to her work. They did not speak again for the duration of her visit, but as she rose to leave he stopped her.

"Hey, uh, thanks for takin' care of me. Will you be my nurse tomorrow too?" His eyes were expectant and there seemed to almost be the ghost of a blush on his swarthy cheek

She softened again to him, he looked almost boyish, and she couldn't help but feel flattered that he would have such an interest in her. "Yes," She allowed herself to smile just the faintest bit "I'll be your day nurse for the duration of your recovery."

At this he broke into a full roguish grin "Well then I'll see you tomorrow Nili Cohen."

She closed the door behind her and stood outside for a moment, allowing a full smile to cross her face and she exhaled slowly, the image of his handsome face grinning wide at her with a glint in his eye. She shook her head and her mind was back to business, she had 10 other patients to attend to before she could be finished for the day.

Donny Donowitz laid back in his pillows. Here he was holed up in this hospital bed, he had no idea how he got there. He racked his brain trying to remember the events that had led up to the explosion that put him in here. Last thing he remembered he and Aldo had been leading their brigade through the outskirts of Palermo on a march towards the city. They must have been ambushed. He couldn't for the life of him put anything together past that; besides him waking up here and that pretty little nurse taking care of him.

He let his mind wander to her as he laughed a little and smiled. She was something' else. She was like a pin-up come to life and living color. She was sweet as pie and sharp. He could see himeslf falling hard for a girl like her. She was somethin' that even Mama Donowitz couldn't say no to; as overbearing as she was. She'd been trying to marry him off ever since he graduated, to the Stutz girl, the Braun girl, the Greenberg girl, really any nice little Jewish girl. Instead her son brought home shiska after shiska. Tall and blonde, short and red headed, always big busted and slim waisted. Each one of them had "killed his poor mother." As soon as he saw her he'd made up his mind that Nili Cohen was it, and when all of this was over he'd be taking her home to Boston and making a Red Sox fan out of her. He could picture waking up with her every morning and going to bed with her every night. They'd live in one of those nice brownstones on the Back Bay and he'd come home to a fresh cooked meal every night. She'd give him a few kids, a couple of sons and a little girl that looked just like her that he could spoil rotten. He'd never much figured himself for a man that wanted something like that, but now it seemed to make sense.

He was wrestled from his thoughts by the door to his room opening and shutting and a real ruckus coming from outside. He chuckled when he noted who was quickly locking the door and calling out in horrible Italian "Scah-you-sa-me"

"You know Aldo, most of these nurses are American."

The rough looking soldier moseyed himself over to the chair by Donny's bedside and flopped down into the seat putting his old boots up on the clean white sheets. Donny could see the evidence of the blast on Aldo too, his arm was in a sling and he had a few cuts and bruises, Donny's eyes inadvertently travelled to the mean scar that slit across his neck. He's never had the chance to ask about, and he figured it was a sore subject, but it intruiged him. He felt like Aldo Raine was a man full of secrets.

"Sure as shit I know that but I was tryin' to play like I waddn't. I waddn't goin' to listen when they kept shoutin' "No visitors!" at me. How yah doin' Donny Boy?"

"A little roughed up Sarg." Donny said honestly "But I'll be back to wreckin' havoc on those bastards in a few weeks. I bet I'll have some catchin' up to do in the body count."

"You sure will Donowitz m'boy, and I'm a fuckin' Lieutenant now, you're the Sarg for Christ's sake"

"Shit I forgot. What the hell happened to us Aldo?" He asked crossing his arms and sitting up a little in his bed.

"We were ambushed, those fuckers blew the shit out of the jeep and damn near killed everyone in the platoon. You an' I pulled out a few stragglers, even with your damn leg about ready to fall off. You passed out after we pulled the last man out and I got you here. You've been out for 3 days."

"Well, fuck me." Donny muttered to himself as he took in the gravity of what had gotten him here. His entire platoon was dead. He tried not to remember the faces of those boys, they had been together since boot camp and damn if he wasn't going to miss every single one of 'em. "Who got out?" He asked as his voice thickened

"Smith, Balboni and Reacker."

"Everyone else is gone?"

"Yes sir." Aldo's own face betrayed a little of his sadness over losing his boys. He blamed himself tremendously, but he could never show it.

"Well, what now Aldo? Our platoon's gone, are we going to be reassigned?"

At this question Aldo moved to lean close to Donny's bed "Yes, I've gut word from the brass that they have somethin' very special in mind for you and I."

"What do they want us to do Aldo?" Donny asking eyeing his commanding officer hard.

"We're gonna be mercenaries." Aldo said leaning back in his chair again and kicking his feet back up.

"Mercenaries?" Donny questioned shaking his head. "Why the hell do they want us for that?"

"The brass was very impressed by yours and my par-tick-que-lar brand of revenge, and they decided to find a very specific channel for us, muh boy. As soon as you're out of here you and I will be hand selectin' a group of soldiers, specifically Jewish American soldiers. We'll be dropped into France with one goal and one goal only; to kill as many of those kraut mother fuckers as we can as brutally as we can. We're going to be forming an Apache resistance based on fear and good old urban legend. We're gunna be the monster under Uncle Adolph's bed."

Donny was about to reply when he heard a sharp rap on the door. "Sergeant, you better open this door right now or I'm going to be very upset with you."

"Shit, open the door Aldo." Donny knew her voice and the last thing he wanted was for her to be mad at him, that would throw his plan all off kilter.

"Why the hell would you want me to do that? They'll just kick me out." Aldo said taking a bump from his snuff tin.

"It's just this nurse." Donny said shooting Aldo a look.

"Aha, the new Missus. You work fast Donny." Aldo said nodding gravely "Well fine and well then. I suppose I could just come back tomorrow with some sort of official papers from the brass." Aldo popped up in the spry way he went about all things and opened the door to reveal Nili Cohen tapping her shoe with her brow furrowed.

"Good afternoon Mrs. Donowitz." Aldo said cavalierly as he held out his arm ushering her into the room.

"My name is Miss Cohen. And, I don't care who you are but there's no visitors allowed at this particular time." She whipped her hand out towards the door and struck out her index finger "Out."

Aldo just smiled sideways and winked at the prone Sergeant "You picked a good'un Donny, I'll be seeing you tomorrow" He turned towards the little nurse next to him "With the proper paperwork, Missus." With a slight bow he was out of the room and off into the hallway.

Nili turned her eyes on Donny and she did not looked pleased. "What did you think that was?" She moved quickly up next to his bed and he noted now without the smell of the medical supplies that she smelled like lilacs.

"That was my Lieutenant." Donny said shrugging

"Well, tell him kindly that next time there won't be a next time and he better not show his face in my ward again." She let her guard down after she had said her piece and she moved over to his bedside to sit by the chair Aldo had vacated.

She didn't know why but she was drawn to this man, she had finished her rounds and she wanted to relax, and she felt like she could relax with him.

"He better not have been trying to spring you early. You're quite a bit broken Sergeant and you need time to heal." She plopped herself down in the chair and stretched her legs out in front of her. Donny's eyes followed the lines of her legs as they stretched and he couldn't help but picture wrapping those legs around his waist.

"I think you just want to keep me around." He said skimming his gaze shamelessly over her body and back up to her face.

She laughed a little and shook her head. "I knew you were that type."

"What type?" Donny was immediately on guard, readying to defend his character

"The cocky type. You're all bluster, Sergeant." She intertwined her fingers on her lap and sat back in her chair.

"I'm all bluster, I think that's you Nurse Cohen, coming in here this morning like you're all business and now you're sidled up to my bed like we're old friends." He let another one of his crooked smiles creep onto his face and he knew he was charming her.

She knew he had her pinned. She had to think quickly to get around him. "You're the only man in this place whose not blown to smithereens, I need a few minutes without a severed limb in my hand." She was being half honest. The carnage in this place was breaking her slowly, it was like every time she turned around there was another boy too young to even be away from his mama with an arm or a leg blown off.

"If that means I'm first in line to get a date with you then hell I'll take that as a compliment."

She just shook her head at him and tried not to laugh, he was making her forget about the realities of the war.

"Language, Sergeant." She reminded him yet again, Donny smiled wryly, she was only half serious.

"I'll watch my language when you start calling me Donny."

She sighed and laughed a little, her laugh was like these little silver chimes his Ma had hanging over the kitchen window. He liked it a lot.

"I better get used to you cussing then Sergeant."

"So Nili, when are you off tonight, and where can I take you dancing?" He wanted to make her laugh again, to hear those little silver chime noises.

"Fat lot of dancing you'll be doing Sergeant with a leg like that."

"I can sure as shit try. Come on, don't you want run around town with a handsome officer?" Donny even laughed at himself this time and she joined him.

"I wouldn't go out on the town with a big lug like you if you were the last man on earth." With that she got up from her chair and walked towards the door. "Goodbye Sergeant, I'll see you tomorrow."

He shook his head a little and smiled, he was winning her over. Whether she liked it or not. "I'll be waiting Nili."


	2. Two

The next day Donny woke up earlier than he was used to, maybe it was the 3 full days of sleep be had under his belt or maybe it was the dreams he'd had that woke him. The dreams were all fire and loud cracks and the feeling of ripping skin. He woke covered in a thin sheen of sweat and breathing hard like he'd just run the marathon.

He spent the first hours of his waking day shifting about restlessly in bed committing every detail of the room to memory. He was not used to being laid up, he'd always had to be moving, running, playing ball, working hard down at the fish docks to save up for his first car. Sitting still for this long was killing him. He debated trying to get up for the first hour, and during the second hour he decided to try for it.

He moved himself to the corner of the bed and shifted his feet to dangle off, the heavy cast making him scowl. He was just about to move himself off of the bed when he heard his door open.

"What in the name of all things holy do you think you're doing Sergeant?" She was at his side in a second whacking him in the arm with a furious fire in her eyes.

"I just wanted to move around a little, can you blame me?" He said as he brushed off her help moving himself back into his former position.

"Just wanted to move around? You shattered your leg 4 days ago! You're a real pig headed idiot if you think you're just going to go for a stroll around the veranda after that."

"I heal quick." He was stubborn she would give him that, but she was pretty damn tough herself.

"No one heals quick after a shattered leg."

"Well I can't sit here for all hours of the day. I'll go stir crazy."

"You're like a stubborn little boy, you know that?" Her voice was hard and her eyes were harder as she rechecked his wounds making sure he hadn't popped any stitches in his silly little attempt at freedom. She knew he was going to be trouble; he didn't seem like he was used to ever sitting still.

"Yeah well..." He didn't have anything to come back with, he knew he was being stubborn as a goddamn mule.

"Yeah well is right." She said bitingly "If you want to get out of the room make a request for a wheelchair and one of us will take you outside for a couple hours with the other patients. You don't need to act like a damn fool"

He looked at her sideways and his eyes got a wry twinkle in them "Language Nurse Cohen."

She glared at him and she made a low noise of frustration.

"Will you be the one that takes me outside?"

She sat up and walked over to the medicine cabinet, she looked over her shoulder and shot back at him "If hell freezes over."

"I thought it felt a little chilly in here." His handsome face was plastered with that same cocky grin. "I'd like to request for you to take me outside today Nurse Cohen."

"Oh, you are a real idiot." She said as she put away her supplies.

"Come on Nili, I didn't mean any harm by it." His eyes were softer now and she could tell he was honestly sorry.

"Yeah well if you had gotten hurt it could have cost me my job and yours." She walked back over to his bedside and she knew she couldn't stay mad at him for long. He was just a big overgrown boy.

"I'm sorry Nili, I didn't know it would look bad on you." She put her hand on her hip and let out a long sigh.

"Well, let me go get you a wheel chair and I'll send in an orderly to help you get dressed."

"Now that won't be necessary I'll be a good boy and help you dress me." His eyes were alight and she couldn't help but smile at his bluster.

"Not if you were the last man on earth Sergeant." She shook her head as she walked out of the door but she could hear him calling down the hall after her

"You'll change your tune soon, sweetheart."

She moved quickly and found one of the orderlies and sent him to Donny before she got back. She reached the nurses station and put in the request for the chair.

"Whose this for?" the older nurse asked as she looked over the paperwork "Aha 513, he's that handsome young Sergeant, right?"

"Yes, he's the Sergeant." Nili's voice was even, if one listened closely they could tell that the even tone was forced, and the old nurse always listened closely.

"I heard that he was askin' the night nurse about you, how old you were, how long you've been here. I think he's sweet on you. I'll cover the rest of your shift today, you take that boy outside and sit with him"

Nili tried hard to protest "Oh, no you don't have to do that Delilah you really don't have to do that. I have so many patients that need me on top of your workload..."

The older woman put up a hand and gave the younger girl a saucy look "It's alright honey, don't you worry." She punctuated herself with a wink "You two young things go outside and enjoy yourselves."

Nili knew that was the end of it and she let out a long breath as she tucked a stray hair behind her ear. The older nurse came back a few moments later with an old wheelchair and she winked again as she handed it off to Nili. The younger girl just sighed and turned sharply on her heel back down the hall

Upon getting back to Donny's room Nili found him sitting up fully dressed in the khaki uniform of an airman.

"There's my girl." He said setting his hands on the bed and making to lift himself up.

"Sergeant, don't even think about it." He just shook his head again and picked his hands up putting them in front of him in a motion of defeat.

Nili moved the chair over to the side of his bed and moved herself to his side. "Now put your arm around my shoulder and let me help you into the chair"

Donny scoffed, "Baby you're nothin' but a little slip of a thing and I'm a pretty big sonofabitch; I'll crush you."

She just growled in frustration again as she grabbed up his arm on her own and shot him a glance that could kill. He tried to snake his other arm around her waist but she whacked it away and stepped back.

"Sergeant if you don't keep your paws off me I swear I'll scream. I already have no patience with you today."

He just chuckled again and raised his hand to gently stroke it across her cheek "I'm sorry sweetheart, I'll behave; For now."

She just shook her head and helped him lower himself down into the rickety wheel chair. He moved his arms to the sides to start pushing himself out of the room when she laid her hand on his shoulder stepping in front of him. "Mother of God Sergeant, you're such a stubborn bastard. Let me push you before I lose my job."

"But, if you're pushin' me then I can't see how goddamn pretty you are."

She moved behind him and took the handles of the wheelchair and pushed him roughly jerking him forward and causing him to jostle his leg. He made a growl of pain and looked up at her with narrowed eyes.

"You're a real charmer you know that Sergeant." She said through gritted teeth.

She pushed him through the hallway, she noted that the other nurses gave Donowitz second glances, but he merely mugged for them, smiling his roguish smile and complimenting them. He wasn't really concerned with them though. He had his girl and she was right behind him pushing him along the hall.

They made it out onto the veranda and for the first time Donny was able to really take in the scenery. The hospital had clearly once been a church, he could tell that much by taking in the large whitewashed building and the statues of the Catholic saints strewn about the gardens. He took in the other patients sitting and hobbling around on crutches, a few other nurses were poking about tending to the worse off ones, the ones without legs and arms. Donny shuddered a little and tore his sight away from his fallen brothers and towards the girl at his side.

Nili wheeled the Sergeant to the corner of the gardens towards a small stone bench so she could sit herself. She set him up next to the bench and perched herself on the side leaning back and letting the sun wash over her, trying to let her frustration burn away.

The Sergeant was quiet for once, not because he wanted to be, because he had to be. He didn't have words. She leaned herself back and let the sun wash over her, just like his Ma's fat old orange tabby used to do. Only now it wasn't some fat cat, it was a woman, a freaking gorgeous woman. Donny's eyes trailed down her neck to the sharp V of her button up dress and down the row of buttons between her breasts. Her body was somethin' else, and if her body was somethin' else her face was on a whole 'nother level. He eyed the lines of her high cheekbones and moved down to her soft lips, and to the deep dimple that formed when she smiled to herself. Her brows were defined and arched prettily over her large almond shaped eyes, those eyes; damn, he could wake up looking into those for the rest of his life.

"You're awful quiet Sergeant." She said after a moment.

"When are you ever going to stop calling me Sergeant?" He asked as he rolled up the sleeves on his shirt, it was hotter than all hell outside and watching her like he was wasn't helping.

"When you tell me your real name E. Donowitz, because it sure isn't Donny." She was quick, he liked that.

"Nobody's called me by that name since 5th grade. S'always been Donny." He shrugged and smirked at her "Don't worry though, you'll find out my real name when we get ourselves hitched."

She laughed so hard she coughed. The man was insatiable.

"Not if you were the last man on Earth, Sergeant."

"Awww come on baby, can I at least get a promotion to the second to last man on Earth?"

She cracked one eye open from sunning herself and smirked a little "Not if you ever call me baby again."

"What do you prefer then, Honey, Sweetheart, Baby Doll? My little latke?" He was grinning wide now and she opened both her eyes to look at him. "I need to know what pet names to call you in front of the kids."

She sat up straight and just eyed him for a minute. This man would be the end of her, she could already tell. His dark eyes were crinkled at the sides and his easy smile was bright. His jaw was cut and his features screamed of masculinity. The rolled up sleeves of his shirt showed off the tanned, toned arms that held more strength than she hoped she'd ever see and she knew underneath that shirt on his left arm was something that meant a great deal to him and her as well.

"What kids, Sergeant?" She knew the answer already, but her frustration at him disobeying her was nearly gone and she felt like she could play along.

"Ours." He said sitting back in his chair clearly satisfied with his own answer.

"Your delusions are getting the best of you, maybe I should up your dosages." She gave him back a playful smirk of her own.

"I think you're the delusional one. Thinkin' like you won't come home to Boston and marry me."

She just chuckled and preoccupied herself with a blooming flower just behind the bench she was perched on. Donny watched her pick the blossom with her slender fingers and twirl it between her index finger and thumb.

She looked like something out of a magazine, here she was sitting here in her short little nurse's dress twirling a flower looking like the picture of innocence and the epitome of everything he'd ever wanted in a woman. Oh the poor bastard, he was smitten.

"I'm going home to New York and working in a hospital after all this is over I didn't just become a nurse for the war. I've always wanted to be one." She let the flower's stem weave through her fingers as she looked up and met his eyes, he was listening to her intently, something she wasn't used to in a man.

"Well, Mass General is a few blocks down from my apartment... They're always looking for good nurses, and I suppose I could live with a wife with her own job."

"Oh cut it Sergeant. You'll tell me all about how you're going to marry me but you won't tell me your own first name." As she was twirling the flower round it slipped from her fingers down by the wheel of Donny's chair.

"You have to earn that." He said as he picked up the flower and tucked it in her hair next to her left ear. "Your hair is somethin' else, you know that?" He gently fingered a strand as he pulled his hand back and he noted that she shivered slightly.

"I am well aware." She blushed a little and cleared her throat. "It never behaves itself." She self consciously ran a hand over the curly mop.

"I like it." His voice was warm as the Sicilian sun and his face was placid and content "I think you're the prettiest thing I've seen that's not in a pin up, and even then I think you could take most all of those girls for a ride. The boys back home aren't going to know what to do when I sail back up the Charles with you on my arm."

She was terribly flushed but she turned her head away from him to hide it. "Sergeant..."

"You think I'm kiddin' around, but I don't kid around. I've never asked a woman to marry me before, barely ever even asked one on a second date."

"Sergeant, be quiet. I'm not going to talk about this anymore." He moved quick even from his chair and grabbed up her hand.

"No, you listen here Nili Cohen. I decided the moment I saw you that you were it for me and no other girl was going to cut it."

"Sergeant Donowitz." She was getting worked up now, but he wanted to tell her how it was going to be, Donny Donowitz was the kind of man that did not take "no" for an answer.

"Can I write you? Once I leave here?" He was quickly trying to reroute the conversation.

She was a off put by him and she didn't quite know what to do with this Sergeant Donowitz. "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it." She tried to shake her head and regain herself. She had to, she couldn't let him get to her.

"Well, that's not a no." He shrugged, he'd never admit it, but his ego was bruised. He'd never ever heard no, or even anything besides yes from a woman.

He was just about to ask her something else when he heard a very familiar voice calling out to the nurses to let him through.

"Come on girls, official brass business, let a man through, I got me an invalid to see, move along now ya'hear?"

"Aldo." He stated smoothly greeting his C.O.

"God lookitchu Donny, out here in the sun in your chair like a goddamn geezer."

"Watch your language Lieutenant."

Aldo took notice of the petite nurse sitting next to his Sergeant. "I'm beggin' your pardon little lady, but your man and I have some con-fi-den-tial bidness to attend to if you wouldn't mind scootin' your preddy little self away for a bit. I promise I'll give him back in the same state he's in now."

Nili scowled a little at the older man but took note of the large dossier under his arm. "Alright Lieutenant, visiting hours are over by 5 so I expect you to be gone by then, notice from brass or not."

"You have my most solemn word ma'am." With that she just nodded and removed herself from the corner. She felt Donny's eyes follow her as she left the yard and moved into the confines of the hospital.

As soon as she was out of sight Donny could focus his mind on the papers Aldo was setting in front of him. The outline was all there. They would select a handful of the best and the most vicious and take them deep into enemy territory. After Aldo had finished explaining the superficials of the plan he opened himself up to Donny

"So whaddya think, boy?"

Donny leaned back in his chair and scratched absently at his thick cast. "Well I think it's a damn good plan Aldo. I've been gettin' restless here and I've only been here 4 days." His mind flicked briefly to Nili and it was almost like Aldo could see into his thoughts "Yeah I can see you gettin' real restless here Donny boy. Specially with that little piece fawnin' over yah."

Donny's eyes flashed at Aldo and he couldn't help what came out "Don't you ever say that she's a piece a tail. You got that right?"

Aldo raised up his hands and chuckled a little at Donny's temper "Well shit Donowitz, take it easy."

"Sorry Aldo." His voice was gruff and he looked over towards the building.

"You're serious 'bout her, ain't cha?" Aldo asked his voice low as he eyed his second in command

"Yeah. I guess I am" Donny replied his eyes not leaving the doorway he'd last seen her walk through.

"She can't get in the way of this now Donny, you understand me?" Aldo's voice was serious as he followed Donny's line of vision.

"She won't, but I'll tell you right now that I don't care if I have to take down every kraut from here to Berlin single-handed to end this war and go home to her."

Aldo shook his head and contemplated how that was just the type of talk he didn't want to hear from his second in command. Donny Donowitz couldn't go soft on him, not now.

"Well then you gotta fight for her, you bastard. What they're doin' over there, if they overtake a hospital she's in and they find out she's a Jew. They'll ship her off as soon as you'd blink an eye. Every Nat-zie bastard you kill is putting her just out of reach of the next. Keepin' her safe."

Then mention of any harm coming to his little nurse made Donny see red. He felt that old familiar rage bubble up inside him, but this time it was ten fold.

"Well then you better get me the fuck out of here Aldo. I got a lot of killin' to do."

"Thatta boy..." Aldo said nodding solemly.


	3. Three

Nili watched the 2 men from just inside the window of the hospital. She studied the Sergeant as he leaned down and poured over the large file his C.O. had brought with him.

He really was a handsome man. Some part of her thought she was terribly stupid for rejecting his advances, but her head which she had always let rule, told her she was right in her mannerisms with him.

Her eyes followed the line of his broad shoulders down his thick forearms. He was pointing out various parts of the paperwork in front of him to the Leuitenant in front of him. His eyes were bright and excited. His face really did come alive when he was excited, his teeth gleamed and dimples formed in the sides of his cheeks.

"He's a handsome man." Nili was snapped away from watching him by the voice of one of the night nurses, Lily Decker.

"Hmm, who?" Nili tried to sound unimpressed

"Your Sergeant, I'm his night nurse. Last night he grilled me on you the entire time I changed his dressings. He's like a big ol' love struck puppy."

"He's not my Sergeant, he's a Sergeant, just one among many here."

Lily rolled her eyes and nudged shoulders with Nili, they were almost the same age, Lily was 22 and Nili was almost 24. "Come on, he's damn handsome. Give him a chance, what do you have to lose?"

"None of the head nurses and doctors take the girls who get involved with the patients seriously. They think they're just here to chase husbands." Nili had seen more than her fair share of nurses dismissed for getting caught with the soldiers, and she was not about to be one of them.

"Everyone here knows you're a phenominal nurse, Nili. No one would think of you that way."

"Even so, I don't like him. I think he's all bluster and far too full of himself. Did you know he told me he was going to marry me on the spot, who thinks that will work?"

Lily laughed and joined her in watching him quietly "Well, consider yourself lucky you've gotten a proposal. Johnny still won't even mention it and we've been steady for 5 years." Lily's face fell a little speaking of her longtime boyfriend. He was stationed somewhere in Africa fighting Rommel.

Nili took her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze "Don't worry Lily, as soon as the war's over."

"That's what I keep telling myself, but don't you close yourself off Nili. Let fate take over for once and don't try to fight it."

Nili just shook her head and laughed "I do love a good fight though."

Lilly nodded and smiled and excused herself from Nili to finish her rounds. Nili stole one more glance at the corner of the garden then moved to the nurse's station to finish some paperwork.

The next few days were spent waking and working towards becoming mobile. Donny woke three hours before he knew Nili would be in to see him and he would work to lift and move his leg. He was almost sure she knew about his morning rituals, but she let it slip passed the other nurses. After she came in she would take him outside and they would sit by their bench together until Aldo came. Nili and Aldo were not fond of each other and Donny always noted with a chuckle how she would tense and roll her eyes as soon as soon as she heard his voice.

As Nili wheeled him inside the hospital after another day out in the sun pouring over files with the Leuitenant she wondered why he was so quiet, usually he had some sort of comment about how he'd missed her or how she'd gotten prettier while she was gone, but today he was quiet.

"Is there something wrong Sergeant, are you in pain?"

"Hmm, no. Not at all, just thinking." His voice was flat and she could tell he was indeed deep in thought. His quietness made her uneasy, but not because it was awkward, because it was a different side of him. She hadn't known he could be dark and contemplative like this.

She got him to his room and moved to his side to help him back up into his bed. He waved her off and picked himself up.

"Sergeant, please don't be obstinant. Let me help you."

He sighed and she could tell his temper was flaring a little "I don't need you coddling me like a damn baby. If you expect me to get better you're going to have to let me do things on my own for God's sake." His voice was biting and she was shocked to hear him talk like that to her.

"Listen, I'm the nurse here and you're just a stubborn jack ass, don't think you can ever take that tone with me again." She was strong and she had her back straight with her hands on her hips. "I don't know what is wrong with you today, but you'll not be taking it out on me."

He growled out and stubbornly lifted himself out of his wheelchair, Nili whipped herself in front of him and pushed him down to sit in the chair with a fire in her eyes. "Stop it right now."

He sputtered to himself and when he met her eyes his held the same quick burning fire. "No, you stop it right now. I'm a goddamn man and I don't need a woman to help me out of a goddamn chair. I can lift myself up!"

Nili had had enough of him. He was infuriating, and if he wanted to hurt himself she wasn't going to waste her energy stopping him. "You know what, fine. Go ahead." She threw up her hands and turned quickly on her heel to leave the room.

"Yeah I will, you go ahead and take that stick out of your perfect tight little ass."

The next day she was dreading going to his room. She even saved him for last. The walk down the hallway seemed long and foreboding as she listened to the clicks of her own heels, each step bringing her closer to the man that had so infuriated her the day before.

She took a deep breath and turned the handle. She stepped into the room and refused to look at him. She busied herself with his chart and did not move to speak to him.

"Nili..." His voice was quiet and she could hear that he was sorry almost immediately, she still did not meet his eyes as she pulled up a chair to his bedside to change his bandages. "Nili will you look at me?"

"You popped your stitches." She said flatly as she unwound a bandage from his bicep.

"Nili, I know you're pissed at me." She still didn't look at him. She was not going to give in easily, she was not the type of girl who let a man speak to her like that. "Can you at least look at me while I apoligize to you?"

She huffed out of frustration and looked up into his face, she was startled to see how distressed he looked, his brows were furrowed and his eyes were searching. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have spoken to you like that yesterday. It's been eatin' me up since then... I was wrong."

She sighed and cocked her head to look at him. There was no doubt he was sincere.

"You were stupid."

"I know, I was an asshole. I'm sorry, I just hate bein' like this. I'm not used to it..."

Her anger at him was ebbing out of her and she couldn't help but notice how handsome his features were when they were soft like this.

"I forgive you." She said nodding "I know you're not someone whose used to needing help. You just have to trust me."

"I do trust you, I know you're a great nurse, I just... I got a lot on my plate."

She knew what he was cooking up with Aldo everyday was not just some small battle plan, their faces were always so serious, she knew it was terribly important.

"I know, it's okay to be overwhelmed once and a while. You can't carry the weight of the world on your shoulders."

He laughed a little and winced as she started to restitch his arm. "I could say the same to you, do you ever have fun Nili Cohen? Lily says you never go out with the other nurses. Are you just waitin' on me?"

Nili stopped stitching and immediately swore under her breath, she could kill Lily Decker. She cleared her throat and tried not to look at him again "I have plenty of fun, I just don't like to go out to the taverns."

He nodded and the old smirk she had become used to graced his face "I think you just try to shut yourself away behind your work. You gotta loosen up, I won't take back telling you to take that stick out of your perfect little ass."

She huffed again and rolled her eyes at him, "Just when I thought I could maybe like you Sergeant."

"You're gonna love me one day, baby. And it'll be soon."

"You're never going to quit are you?" She asked staring him right in the face. His eyes were warm and she could tell that he was not joking now, he was deadly serious. This man was in love with her.

"Not until you let me put a ring on your finger." He reached out a hand and cupped her cheek gently and she let herself lean into his hand for a moment before realizing and pulling herself away sharply. She cleared her throat and petted the newly stitched skin on his on arm before moving down to change the bandage on another wound.

Once she was done she moved to leave the room, they had talked sparingly during the rest of her visit, she was too preoccupied by the churning in her stomach.

"Hey, you're done with your rounds now aren't you?" His voice was soft and she turned back to look at him not knowing if she should answer him truthfully

"Yes."

"Care for a drink? I think we both need to take eachother's advice for once and take a break from thinking so much." He gestured to the flowered bottle on his bedside table, no doubt Aldo had brought him that. He knew wine wasn't allowed techinically, but most nurses turned a blind eye.

"Sergeant... You know wine is against the rules." She tapped her foot a little.

He waved her off and smiled with his whole face at her, his dimple forming and his eyes lighting up "Come on kid, this is what I'm talking about, live a little."

She felt herself breaking towards him, her brain was chatising her to brush him off and leave the room, but for once she let her instinct take over and she turned around and pulled the chair back up to his bed and sat down.

His smile grew wider as he watched her bend down and start untying her heeled shoes, he grabbed two glasses off of his table and poured a generous amount of red wine into each glass.

She pulled her heels off and wiggled her feet a little letting the feeling return to the tips of her toes.

"Even your feet are cute." She looked up to meet his gaze and she let his smile infect her face as she took the large glass he offered her.

"Do you think I'm a lush Sergeant?" She chuckled a little and he laughed with her

"No, but I think this might be enough to start to loosen you up."

"You know, I can be fun too." She said taking a sip of her drink

"Oh yeah?" He sat back on his bed and crossed his arms "I bet you've never even stayed out past your curfew."

She snorted into her wine and shook her head "I have too! I'm not a wet blanket Sergeant."

"I never said you were a wet blanket. I don't think a girl that looks like you could ever be boring, I just think you like to play by the rules."

"There's nothing wrong with playing fair." She lowered her eyes and swilled her wine, he seemed to be able to read her so easily and she wondered just how much of an open book she really was.

"See baby doll, that's why you need me. Tell me you're not enjoying a fine glass of wine here with your man, and tell me it isn't a bit exciting because it's against the rules."

"You're not my man, Sergeant, but I will admit that this is a very good wine."

He shook his head and took a long gulp "Oh no, sweetheart. I'm your man and yours alone. You just won't admit to being my girl yet."

She felt her stomach warm a little as he said that. It spread to a delicious rush as she looked up and met his eyes. She felt little sparks in her scalp and a tingling in her toes.

"You're so sure of yourself Sergeant."

"I'm only sure of myself because you're a horrible liar"

He'd caught her and he knew it. He saw the pale pink of her cheek and the glitter in her eye and he knew it wasn't just from the wine.

"I'm not a horrible liar..." she mumbled stubbornly as she reached the halfway point in her glass, Donny had already finished his and poured himself another glass.

She wanted to change the subject so she thought fast "Tell me about yourself Sergeant."

"You wanna know about me?" he asked eyeing her down

She nodded and smiled at him curling her plump lips in a way that made him want to do nothing more than crash his own into hers.

"I'm 28, I'm from Boston, but you already knew that." He said starting off

"Tell me about your family." She asked taking a few more sips

"Well, I got 2 kid brothers, Zeckariah and Joshua, Zeck is 18 now and Joshua is 12, they're good kids, smart too. Zeck's going to college later this year, he wants to be a doctor. He's a real smart ass though, that's his only problem. Josh wants to play for the Red Sox, he's more like me when I was a kid, but he's got a better head on his shoulders."

She smiled hearing him talk about his brothers, she sucked down the rest of her wine and he nodded to her glass, she handed it to him and he refilled it gladly, he was finally getting to see her relaxed and it was just sinking him deeper.

"My dad's got a baber shop. I worked there for a few years after I graduated before I enlisted. I liked it a lot, I love being around my family I guess. I played baseball all through high school and after, I still have the state home run record, my mom's got a stupid plaque hanging over the fireplace next to my diploma."

He seemed almost bashful in front of her, it was not what anyone would expect form a man who stood 6 foot 2 and was as thick as a tree trunk.

"You're a barber?" The thought of him working a pair if scisscors with those big bear hands was almost ludicrous.

"Yeah, you think that's funny?"

"A little bit, I would have figured a man like you a butcher or a mason."

"Nope, I cut hair. Maybe that's why I like you so much, your hair." He reached out and curled one of her tight spirals around his fingers "Or maybe it's because you're the most beautiful fuckin' woman I've ever seen."

She blushed furiously and felt if she hadn't already been sitting her legs would have turned from bone and tendoin to mush.

"What about girls, you asked me; do you have a girl back home Sergeant?" The wine was loosening her tongue and she was letting her animal attraction breach the walls of her head.

That question sent one side of his mouth arching high over the other and he cocked his head a little. "You're askin' me if I got a girl back home?"

"Repeatin' a thing doesn't answer it Sergeant." Her head was swimming a little, she'd had a few drinks in her day, she and Abe used to knock plenty back in the little jazz bars in Manhatten, but it'd been months since she'd indulged and the tall glass of wine she'd sucked down was affecting her.

"What if I did have a girl back in Boston?" His voice was sly but the glint in his eye was sharp.

She swilled her wine and had another sip before she met his eyes with her own "Then I'd tell you you're the filthiest flirt on the Eastern Seaboard and she should be ashamed of you."

He laughed a low rumble in his chest "Well, good thing you won't have to tell me that then."

She raised her eyebrows and nodded slowly "No girl?"

"Nope."

"Well, that's a surprise." Her face was frank and she punctuated it with a strange look

Donny noticed she was half done with her second glass and he could tell she was getting a little blitzed. He was loosening up himself after 2 full glasses but he had at least 70 pounds on her.

He liked how brazen she was with him though, she wasn't guarding herself anymore.

"Why's that a surprise?" He was curious as to what she meant by that. He was trying to distinguish the look in her eyes but he found himself at a loss.

"Figured a man like you would have at least a couple of girls." She shrugged and gave him the same smoldering look from her big cat's eyes.

"I had girls that wanted me, but I never cared enough for one to call her mine."

"Not even now?" It was then that the look in her eye became clear, it was interest, and challenge.

The wine in his blood was making him warm and looking down at her made him hot. She had arched herself up in the chair a little and put her elbows up on his bed and rested her face there, his eyes moved down from her hypnotizing eyes to her plump lips and down shamelessly to her full breasts pressed up against his mattress.

"I asked you a question."

"I heard you, and I think you know the answer. Things are real different now,"

She pressed herself closer and her voice got lower and silkier "How're things different?"

He moved himself down so his face was only inches from hers, he could feel her warm breath on his neck and he could smell the pungent odor of wine thickening it.

"You got me so goddamn in love with you I don't know what to do with myself."

Her blood boiled hearing him say that. His face was so close to hers and in her haze her eyes followed his full lips and his perfect teeth as he spoke in a husky voice. His breath was so hot and she could feel the heat radiating off of him and she longed to warm herself with it. She had crumbled her last inhibition long ago when she sat down.

"Then kiss me."

He didn't need to be told twice. He felt a little cheap because he knew she was drunk, but he couldn't help himself, she was too close and too warm and her body and her lips were calling out to him.

He pressed his lips to hers hard and he felt her respond to him immediately moving her lips over his quickly and matching his fervor. He reached down and grabbed her around the ribs and pulled her up onto his bed on top of him. She settled herself on him straddling him over the abdomen, she pressed the palms of her hands on his shoulders as he wound his arms about her back and pulled her into him. He groaned feeling her crash against his chest and he nibbled at her bottom lip trying to coax her mouth open. He slid his hands down to the small of her back and he was tempted to rove a hand over the round firm bottom that lay just below.

Without warning though she pulled away suddenly and rocked against his hips as she tried to gain her balance. He gripped her hips both out of fear of her losing her balance and his own need to press her closer down to his groin, he stifled a moan as she raised a hand to her face and brushed back her hair.

"Good God, look at us." She said quietly as she stayed at her perch, she sighed deeply and leaned down to press one more soft kiss to his lips "We can't do this" She swung her legs off of him carefully and slid down from his bed. He watched silently as she sat and put on her shoes without saying a word and scurried from his room.

"Fuck." He swore loudly and tossed one of his pillows angrily at the door. This wasn't what he wanted to happen. He'd acted too quickly, he shouldn't have kissed her, he definitely shouldn't have pulled her on top of him; now she had the wrong idea.

She rushed out of his door a little unsure on her feet from the wine coursing through her. She let out a long breath as she backed against the door. Her head was spinning but alcohol had nothing to do with it. He was all she could think of, she was swimming in him. She still felt him on her, his strong arms around her waist and his lips on hers. His husky voice was replaying in her head over and over again "You got me so goddamn in love with you..."

"Fuck." She heard him swear loudly then she heard the sound of something being thrown. She knew leaving him like that wasn't the best way to end the situation, but she was scared, she was so goddamn scared.

He made her blood boil and her heart race, he made her feel hot and cold and so scared she could cry but so safe she could stay with him forever.

He wouldn't be here forever though. He was an enlisted man, he was going back to combat soon and the reality of it all was that he would most likely die.

The pain of losing Abe had left her empty and broken, she couldn't imagine the pain of losing a lover.

She shook her head and tried to calm herself. She pushed off the door and made up her mind as she walked quickly down the hallway.

The next day Nili entered Donny's room tentatively, he perked up as soon as she entered and he immediately started trying to appologize

"Nili, I'm sorry about last night. I shouldn't have kissed you. You were drunk and I was wrong and I don't want you to think that's all I wanted, Because I..."

She held up a hand to stave off his words

"It was a mistake, nothing more. We both said things we didn't mean and..."

She saw him bristle and he quickly cut her off "I didn't say anything I didn't mean." His voice held a cutting edge.

She was speechless for a moment and her stomach started to turn, she pushed it back though and tried to smooth out her face but she knew he would notice the cracks.

"I'm going to try to forget it happened, and you should too."

She watched as his face fell, it was only for a moment though and then he was all stone faced again.

"One of these days you're going to realize how stupid you can be, but just know that I'll still love you."

She tended his wounds without another word and left quickly once she was done.

The next few days followed suite, she would go in, tend to him and then leave all without a word, some days she would take him outside in the wheelchair, but she would not sit with him like she had before.

After the first week and a half Nili allowed Donny to use a cane instead of the wheel chair but only after a fight.

"Damn it Nili look, I told you!" He was standing and supporting his full weight on the cast and he had his arms throw up in the air in frustration.

"Can't you just listen to me Sergeant? Why do you constantly have to undermine everything I ask of you when I'm only trying to heal you right!" She was in front of him hands on her hips with the wheel chair poised between them. Her eyes were bright with fury and her cheeks were flushed with the effort of yelling at him. This was the first time they had shared more than a few words since that day and he was thankful to hear her voice even if it was her yelling.

"No, I can't. I'm a goddamn Staff Sergeant and I'm wastin' away in here while my boys are out there dyin'!" He was spouting out in a rage Nili had only seen once before but now it was clear and aparent. It didn't scare her though, it seemed only to incite her more and perhaps even excite her.

"Is that what you want then too? To go out there and die with them? Because I can guarantee you if you try to leave early that's what's going to happen. That cast would make one hell of an easy target." She was so frustrated with him she could cry, he could get under her skin so easily, and what was worse was it wasn't his obstinate pig headed ways that made her frustrated it was just how much she didn't want him anywhere but where she could be to take care of him.

"Is that what this is about?" Things were finally clicking for him. This was the reason for her skitishness. She was scared.

"What are you talking about?" She asked shrilly

"Me dyin'. Is that what you're scared of?"

She couldn't speak, she wanted to rush and deny it and tell him he was crazy for thinking it but she knew her face was an open book. He knew he was right.

He just looked at her while she huffed in front of him. Before she could react he had pushed the wheelchair out from between them and pulled her into his chest, he wrapped his arms around her waist and marveled at how right it felt holding her like this. He ducked his head a little to move his face close to hers so he could look her dead in the eye as he spoke

"There's never been a time during this whole fuckin' war when I've actually given a shit about not dyin' until now. You listen to me, Nili Cohen, I'm gunna be leavin' here soon whether I'm healed or not; but I can tell you right now I won't be goin' back out there to die, I'll come back to you." He punctuated his speech with a look that sent shivers all the way down to the soles of her shoes just before he crashed his lips into hers.

After just the briefest moment he pulled away and let her go. She just covered her face with her hands and let out all the breath she'd been holding it. He just watched her, waiting expectantly because he knew he'd already won.

"Alright, fine. No more wheel chair, but you have to use a cane. And, don't ever pull that damn stunt again."

Their dynamic changed over that last week. He knew she was warming to him, to herself, to her own foolish heart. They talked again now when she tended him, and she stayed with him when they went outside.

"You never answered me when I asked if I could write you." His voice broke their content silence as they sat on their bench, this time Donny was seated next to her on the stone bench with his casted foot thrust out next to her small feet.

"I said we'd cross the bridge when we came to it." She always had the same answer for him, but this time it was different.

"That bridge is comin' " He said looking over at her and moving his hand over hers on the bench

"What do you mean?" She asked turning to him, her face suddenly becoming serious.

"I mean that I'm shipping back out soon." He looked down at his hand covering hers and rubbed a small circle on the top of her hand with his thumb.

"But... you're not even close to healed yet, you're supposed to be in that cast for at least 2 more weeks." Her face betrayed her worry, he could see that plain.

"I know, but the army doesn't really care about that. They need me and I have to go."

She looked up at him and she could see in his eyes that he had no choice. This was what he needed to do. She thought of the phrase on his arm, the phrase she got her name from. He could not lie here while his brothers were falling around him. She felt tears brim at the backs of her eyes and she knew she couldn't play away her feelings anymore.

"If they need you, then you have to go." He could hear that her voice was thick but she wouldn't look at him

He sighed and picked up her hand taking it into his lap. "Do you need me though?"

She still could not look at him "What?" she asked him trying not to let her tears betray her.

"I asked you, do you need me? I need you to be honest, because if you say you do I swear I'll fight my way across the continent just to get back to you."

"I..." She was at a loss for words.


	4. Four

This was just what she didn't want to happen. She hated herself for falling for him, but how could she not? She had never met a man that could make her laugh like he could, infuriate her to the point that she wanted to kill him herself yet still not even be mad at him at all, or even leave her speechless. But, he was just leaving again; going off to run headlong into a hail of bullets and she didn't know if she could take that kind of loss again.

"I can't answer that."

She felt him drop her hand. He stood up stiffly and began his clunking walk back into the hospital. She tried to go after him but he shot her a look that told her not to follow.

"You talk a lot about me being the stubborn and pig headed one, but I think you need to take a look at yourself."

"Sergeant... I... Let me help you" She got up and took a step towards him but he held up a hand to stop her.

"I told you how you could help me." He said fiercely "But you're too fuckin' stubborn to admit to anything, even your own heart, and that's a stupid way to live Nili Cohen, real stupid. I'll be gone in the morning, and you won't have to trouble yourself with me anymore."

He hobbled himself back to his room as fast as he could, angrily pushing off orderlies and nurses as he went.

He packed what few things he had into his rucksack: his copy of the Old Testament that his mother made him take, his razor that had once been his father's and still held his monogram, the baseball cards his brother Joshua had made him take, and last but not least the old Louisville Slugger. He moved his hand over the smooth well worn wood. He'd broken his high school's and hell, even the state's home-run record with that thing. He ran his fingers over the signatures, tracing everyone from his neighborhood, his father, his mother, his brothers, everyone had signed this bat when he'd shipped out. Each signature held a prayer and he knew the power that lay inside that old wood.

She lay awake that night tossing and turning on the small bed in the nurses' barracks. She couldn't sleep at all, it was useless to even try. She'd been crying quietly to herself for the past hour, trying not to wake the 3 other nurses that shared her room.

He would be gone after tonight, and she wouldn't see him again. He would go off angry and scorned and she would be the cause. Why? Because she was a scared little girl who didn't want to get her heart broken. Instead she was hurting him.

Her small alarm clocked ticked 3 AM and she watched it with weary eyes. Her head was turning and she had no idea what to do. Finally she took in a deep breath and sat up quietly. She grabbed her robe and slid out of her bed.

She padded down the hallways of the hospital in her bare feet. The nurse on duty was sound asleep at her post and Nili had to stifle her chuckle as she snuck by. She stopped short in front of room 513 and took a deep breath. She turned the knob slowly and held her breath as she stepped into the room.

He was sleeping lightly when he heard the faint sound of a door opening, his eyes shot open and he was shocked to see who stood at his door.

"Hello," her voice was faint and quiet as she moved from the doorway to the side of his bed, as she reached him she stopped just short of his bed and he could tell she was searching for words as she sucked her bottom lip into her mouth and nibbled while she wrung her hands together.

"Hiya" He replied as he sat up to look at her.

"I..." Her eyes were wide and soft, in them he could see everything she was trying to say but couldn't get out. But he needed to hear it, from her. "I was wrong."

He just nodded and still kept up his stony face "About what?"

She took a step closer and perched herself on the side of his bed shaking out her loose curls and trying hard to put into words what she was feeling. He fought the urge to take her up in his arms and kiss her again like he had those few days ago.

"I was wrong about needing you." She moved her hand over one of his and her eyes were honest as she spoke. "I need you to stay safe when you go"

"So you only need me to stay safe, nuthin' else?" His accent was still thick, even when he spoke soft.

She turned away from him and shook her head again "I need you to stay safe so you can come back to me."

At this he hooked an arm around her waist and pulled her close to him on his lap, "You want me to come back to you?"

She just nodded.

"You'll wait for me?"

Another nod, her eyes were filling with tears

"You'll write to me?"

She shook her head again

"Everyday?"

"Yes," Her voice broke a little as she let a few tears slip out

"And send me pictures? Some of 'em smutty?"

She let out a huff of laughter and whacked him across the shoulder "You've pushed your luck with that one." He just chuckled along with her and pulled her head into his chest stroking and tangling his fingers in her dense curls and grabbing her small feet and rubbing her legs with his other hand.

"Come on baby, I'll be away from you for a while, you gotta take care of your man somehow. They can be classy nudes."

She just tangled her hands in his undershirt and curled more into his lap, laughing at his earnest tone. "You haven't even seen me nude yet, Buster Brown."

Saying that could have been a mistake as she heard him rumble in his throat, his hands slid up to her shoulders where her robe lay, "That could change tonight." His voice was husky and his breath was hot by her ear.

She gently pulled away from him, "No, I have to save something for you to come home to Sergeant."

He moved her close again and ran his big calloused hands up and down her arms "Oh believe me, I'll come to home to you no matter what, Baby Doll."

"Sarg, I'm a good Jewish girl, I'm no _zonah_."

He growled in frustration but still held her "Well at least my ma's gonna love yah."

He picked up her little chin in his hand and pulled her in for a kiss. His lips moved over hers smoothly and he ran his hands down the small of her back and rubbed at the tense muscles there. She moved her hands over his shoulders and up his neck to rake her nails through his hair. After a moment they both pulled apart him smiling like the rogue he was and her biting her lip with a smile in her eye.

"I swear to god if I'm not back here in 2 weeks I'm going to kill every kraut with my bare hands to get back to you."

"Yeah well, just don't end up back here in pieces." She tried to sound light but they both knew that possibility was very, very real.

"Don't you worry baby, your man will be back to you in one piece. I swear it."

"I believe you." She wanted to, she really wanted to, but she had heard that all before; and she knew how it ended.

They held eachother close for the next few hours, alternating between sharing kisses and the warmth of each other's embrace. Just before 5 she gently pulled herself away from his arms. "I have to go Sergeant, I have to start my rounds soon and the other nurses will be waking soon."

"You have to leave? Can't you just stay? I need help getting dressed in a little bit..."

"Sergeant you're incourigable."

"Yeah, but you fell for me because I was a pig headed bastard." He scooped her closer once again and laid little kisses all over her face.

"I did, and I'll never hear the end of it now will I?" She stroked his cheek and down to his lips where she kissed him again.

After a moment and a very sweet kiss she scooted off his lap careful of his injured leg. She leaned down once more to kiss him lightly before she turned away from him and made for the door.

"Wait," He called to her "I need you to do somethin' for me before you go."

She turned back to him with a quizical look "What?"

"Go into my suitcase and grab me my bat." He gestured to the corner of the room.

She just shrugged and did what he asked without question. As he took the bat from her he turned in his hands feeling the soft wood.

"Sign it for me, and say a prayer when you do."

He handed her the bat and she took it from him along with the black marker from his bedside table. She moved her hands down to grip the bad at the handle feeling it's weight and the smoothness of the grain. She hadn't held a bat in years, not since Abe had enlisted... She shook her head a little reminded herself of where she was.

He pointed to an open spot righ underneath the Louisville Slugger logo. "Right there, that's the sweet spot, the spot right where you want to land the pitch. I've been savin' it for someone special..."

She took the pen and wrote her name as neatly as she could. After she was done she place her hands over the bat and said the prayer she had recited so many times...

"You will not fear the terror of the night, or the arrow that flies by day, or the pestilence that stalks in darkness, or the destruction that wastes at noonday. A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you. You will only look with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked."

Donny watched her as she wrote her name, clear and neat right on the sweet spot of his bat. Once she had finished she bent her head in prayer and she spoke so low he couldn't make out the words. She was heavily entraced by her prayer though, her brows were furrowed and her mouth moved like wildfire as she reapeated the prayer several times.

She was quiet for a minute after she was done.

She lifted her head and looked up at him handing his bat back to him and allowing him to gently cup her cheek.

"You give them hell Sergeant, and you come back to me"

He smiled and kissed her again.

"I leave at 8 sweetheart, you better be there to see me off."

She cocked a grin at him but he could see that she was trying not to cry. "Of course."

"We'll make all those other nurses jealous, baby." With a wink he let her up and she walked out, gently closing the door behind her and scampered back to her room before the other nurses woke.

A few hours later saw Sergeant Donny Donowitz and his little nurse standing outside the hospital waiting for the jeep that would take him back to combat. The staff had let the young girl have a few hours leave to see off her soldier.

The other nurses had all watched with bated breath as the relationship had unfolded before them. The older women had fawned over them and the younger women were jealous, but they had all paid close attention, like one of their romance novels come to life.

She looked up at the man to her side trying hard to commit evey detail of him to memory. He looked so handsome as he was readying to leave. He stood tall even though he leaned a little on his cane, the doctors had cut off his cast earlier and replaced it with a metal brace that he hid under his pantleg. He was dressed smartly in his khaki airmen's uniform, his dark hair slicked back under his cap and his eyes covered behind dark aviator's glasses. His shirt was starched and his pants were pressed and his insignias glinted in the bright sun. She thought that if this would be the last time she saw him she would want to remember him exactly as he was now, dashing and handsome and ready to take on the entire Third Reich.

He gripped her hand tightly as they both looked down the road towards the small town. He let loose a deep sigh and turned to face her, he slid his arm around her waist and slid the other up into her dark hair. "I'm going to miss you, sweetheart." His voice was rough and low and she looked up at him with large shining eyes. "I'll miss you too, you promise to come back to me?"

"Of course, like I told you, fuckin' cockroaches. I'll always come back."

She laughed again and knocked him on the chest "Real romantic."

"You're stuck with me now, baby." He leaned down and kissed her gently once more before they heard a set of footsteps come up behind them.

It was one of the older nurses holding a large camera. She smiled kindly and stepped up to the young couple, "Thought you might want a picture to remember this by."

Donny smiled down at his little woman and pulled her close to his side snaking his arm around her back. "Thank you Marilyn, you're a real sweetheart."

"Oh it's nothing Sergeant Donowitz, we try to get pictures of all the boys we send off healthy." She smiled kindly and he could almost see tears brimming around the lined edges of her eyes "This one just happens to be extra sweet for us. Stand together now you two, let's give you one to send home."

Nili sidled up close to his side and wrapped her arm around his broad back, both stood still and smiled at the older nurse and the large camera. They heard the machine click and a bright flash broke through the air.

"Perfect" The nurse said as she lowered the camera to smile sweetly at the young lovers. "I'll let you two get on now, we had a radio that your jeep would be here soon Sergeant." The older nurse nodded her head and turn back towards the hospital.

As soon as she had turned back Donny took Nili up in his arms again and moved his hand to stroke her cheek. He was the luckiest bastard in the world to have this girl waiting for him.

She looked beautiful today, her hair was loosely tied, so he could still run his hands through it and her face was sunkissed and flushed as he held her. They were so wrapped up in what could be their last moment together that they didn't notice the older woman turn back and quietly snap a photo of him bending down to press his lips to hers as her back foot gently lifted off the ground as she let herself fall into him.

They broke their kiss when they heard tires ripping up the rough gravel of the hospital road. The tan jeep rolled up quickly, but Donny didn't let go of her hand, he intertwined his fingers with hers and held them tight. The swift talking Southern Leuitenant hopped out of the jeep before it had stopped moving and sprang over to stand in front of the tall Sergeant.

"Why hello there Donny muh boy," he nodded towards Nili "Missus." He spat a lump of tobacco out and looked back up towards Donny over his aviators "Ready boy?"

Donny just nodded and tossed his suitcase into the back of the jeep. He turned back to Nili and just looked at her, she thought he was going to give her a small peck but when she caught sight of the grin he broke into she knew that he had something planned.

"Time for the show I promised." With that he grabbed her up and dipped her so low the tips of her hair almost touched the gravel and he kissed her with a fury that she would have never expected with the audience they had. She didn't hear the whoops and hollers from the other men standing by, she didn't see the smirks on their faces or the points and jests. She didn't see anything or hear anything or feel anything except the strong arms holding her up and the warm lips on her own. When he raised her back up she finally came back to reality

"Sergeant." She tried to sound reproachful but it only came out as breathless, and he took notice smiling wide and toothy before he squeezed her hand one more time and hopped into the jeep. The servicemen waved and chuckled at her as they sped off, leaving her standing alone in front of the large hospital.

Almost immediately Nili was swarmed by the other nurses cooing and trying to comfort her, she could stand none of it. She brushed them off as politely as she could explaining that now was not the time to be worried about him. He was fine for the time being. She moved quickly passed the others and jumped head long back into her routine. She thought of nothing but what she needed to do until she had finished every task she was assigned with the type of fanatic attention to detail only a mad woman would posses. It was only after all of that that she allowed herself to curl up in her bed and cry very, very, quietly.


	5. Five

The northern Italian air was cool as it whipped about the Sergeant's face. He laughed like a madman as his Leuitenant took the jeep to the reaches of it's speed over the cobblestone road.

"Fuck Aldo are you trying to kill us both!" Donny was yelling like he was mad, but really this was better than the time he took his brothers to ride the roller coaster at Salisbury Beach

"Clearly you've never been co-pilot for a 'shine runner before. My ol' Studebaker could hit 60 easy. Sure as shit boy, she could fly." Aldo just let out another Apache whoop before they came to a screeching halt in front of the group of young men infront of the barracks

Aldo and Donny hopped down from the truck to stand in front of their new men. They were a rag tag lookin' group, Donny would admit. But, they were hand selected from hundreds of dossiers.

There was Pfc. Smithson Utivich, a second generation Polish Jew from New York, seeing him standing before him Donny would admit that the little fucker was just that, a little fucker, stood maybe only a little past Donny's shoulder. But, that little fucker had gone headfirst into a German barrack in Egypt and killed 7 soldiers with no more than a revolver with 4 shots and a bowie knife. Kid didn't come out with a scratch.

Then there was Omar Ulmer, another Private First class, this time from Chicago. He'd ambushed a brigade just outside Aldo and Donny's fight in Sicily and cut the throats out of 4 officers before the others even had time to draw a weapon.

Corporal Wilhelm Wicki was their tie to the German language. He was the only other ranking member of their platoon. He'd taken an entire regime hostage and brought 23 captives to his C.O. with the aide of only one other man. That was not what got him into their select group though, it was when his comerade finally admitted to their C.O. that there had been 30 captives originally, and he'd castrated and left a man to die for every half mile they walked back to camp.

Andy Kagan was from the boons of Maine, a good Northeast Boy, Donny had fought for him. He'd only killed three, but he made them count. He just so happened to be in the same Parisian whorehouse as 3 high rankers. When he found out he snuck into their rooms and disemboweled all three men.

Hirschberg, he was young. But he was somethin' else all together. He'd held 6 shot down Luftwaffe pilotes captive for 3 days cutting off fingers each day. When he finally got the information he wanted out of one of 'em he shot each one in the knee caps and then slit their throats.

Each other Basterd had just as distinguished of a resume. Donny grinned wide as he stood before them to the right hand of their fearless leader Aldo "The Apache" Raine. Donny listened with a smirk as Aldo went through the paces with the boys.

Nili expertly stiched the large shrapnel wound on the screaming man's arm. He was delusional with fever and she was covered in his blood, amoung others.

"Shhh..." She tried to comfort him but he only screamed and screamed.

The fighting was picking up like never before. More and more wounded men were coming in every day and more and more were dying. Nili was up to her ears in suffering but she dealt with every man with a steady hand a calm word. Each one of these men deserved the best care she could give and she would run herself to hell and back to give each one what he deserved.

Her back was aching and her hands were cramped from stitching when she finished her shift and made to return to her small shared room. On the way she was stopped by Marilyn, the older nurse who was often her companion during her breaking hours.

"Nili sweetheart, I've just gotten back some pictures I had developed, and I believe I have some that you would like." Nili's face brightened even through her sheer exhaustion as she knew exactly to what photos Marilyn referred. "Come with me dear, we'll get them from my room."

Nili followed the head nurse to her little apartments at the back of the nurses' barracks. She entered the small quarters she had been to a hundred times before, the nurses often played cards together before bed to unwind and keep their minds from what they had seen during their waking hours.

Marilyn moved towards her desk where she took out a small envelope with Nili's name printed on it in Marilyn's pretty font. "Here darling, take them with you, I know you're eager to go start your letter for tonight."

Nili just nodded giving her a kind smile "Thank you so much Marilyn, you're too kind."

"It's nothing, when I left my husband bought this for me and told me to take pictures of everything I could so that he could see what I was up to while he was gone..." A pained look crossed her eyes "Now that he's gone for good... I guess I'll be taking a lot more photos..."

Marilyn's husband Fred had been shot during one of the first raids, but still she served dilligently, never letting any of the other nurses see the cracks in her venear.

Before Nili reached the door Marilyn's voice stopped her "Tell me darling, he's been gone near two weeks, have you recieved any letters from him?"

Nili felt a little pain in her chest when she asked that, "I've only gotten one so far, and that was just after he'd landed on the mainland..."

She felt Marilyn's hand on her shoulder "Don't fret my girl, mail is slow to get here."

"I'm not worried. If something were wrong with him I would know it."

Marilyn smiled sweetly at the girl "Yes my dear, you would. Believe me."

Donny sat hunched up leaning against a tree holding the small stack of envelopes in his lap. Omar had just gone to the whorehouse to get the mail. Aldo had struck a deal with a prostitute in Clichy to recieve and hold all the incoming mail. As soon as it arrived he had removed himself over to the tree to sit and read. It had become an almost weekly ritual.

He turned over the three envelopes in his lap, he knew there must have been more. He knew she wrote him everyday, she'd promised, but the mail was anything but reliable. He wondered how many of his letters she'd actually gotten. He opened the most crinkled envelop first, it looked the oldest.

_My Sergeant,_

She always began her letters to him like that. He smiled to himself.

_It's been 8 days now since you left, and I'll admit I miss you. I am sick however of the other nurses coddling me, they've been inescapable ever since you caused that ruckus scene._

He let himself smile again thinking how it felt to hold her up against him and kiss her like that.

_I've barely had a moment to myself between them offering me sweets and wine and an ear to talk to. I want none of it though. You know as well as I do I'm terribly stubborn._

_The hospital is quiet without you, and I admit I get a certain pang in my chest everytime I pass by the window and see the bench we used to sit on._

_It's close to light's out time though, and I feel as though I need to say what I mean. I miss you, and I would trade a thousand and one petty fights with you than not having you here for a moment. _

_Keep yourself safe, Sergeant. I'm waiting for you._

_Yours, _

_Nili_

He carefully tucked the letter back into it's envelope and moved on to the second one in the pack. This one felt a little heavier than the last and as he unfolded the paper 3 photos fell out. His mind wandered to the proposition of her sending him smut and he wondered if maybe, just maybe... Then he shook his head and laughed at himself. Of course she wouldn't.

He studied the first picture, it was the photo Marilyn had taken of them together. He was standing tall and looking a hell of a lot cleaner than he was now. She looked gorgeous though, as beautiful as he remembered her. He traced his finger down the line of her body and remembered how holding her that morning had felt.

He set that one down carefully and picked up the next one. This one he didn't remember being taken. Marilyn must have snapped it after they'd thought she was gone. Donny was holding her close and leaning down to kiss her. He chuckled when he saw that her leg was popped up in the back, just like those girls in the romance movies he'd taken all the silly girls back home to. He'd have to remember to thank Marilyn for that one.

It was the third picture that really got to him. This one was one that he had definately never seen before. It was a close up of her, it looked like it was taken just before she was set to go to bed, her hair was down and he could see that she was wearing only a spaghetti strapped slip. It looked like there were other girls around her but the photo was too close to tell. She was smiling in earnest and looked as though any moment she would laugh her little silver chime laugh. She was beautiful. This was what he was fighting for. He traced the line of her cheek then her lips with his finger

He was broken from his thoughts when the picture was snatched out his hands. He felt his rage flare up.

"Whoa shit Donny, who the fuck is this?" Hirschberg was holding the picture up to his face and studying it hard. "Where did you find a pin up like this girl?"

"Give me that back Hirschberg, or you're going to have Louisville splattered across your big fuckin' forehead."

"Easy Don," Aldo's attention was now shifted from his sandwich to the two standing men

"Is this your girl Donowitz?" Donny was on Hirschberg before he could get in another word and he'd snatched back his picture smoothing it out to make sure it hadn't gotten bent.

"Fuck Don" Hirschberg was standing up and dusting himself off.

"Don't you ever fuckin' grab anything out of my hands again boy." Donny dropped himself back down to the ground and eyed the rest of the men with a fire in his eyes "My private life stays fuckin' private. Got it?"

The rest of the men just shrugged off Donny's temper, they were used to it by now.

"You wanted to see me Dr. Horvitz?" Nili stood before the desk of the stern old doctor.

"Yes Miss Cohen, I did. I've gotten word from the brass that supplies and nurses are needed in France. They've asked me to nominate my best and brightest for the transfer and you are one of the names I felt confident in putting on the list. You'll ship off in 2 days, and you'll be stationed in a hospital outside Clichy."

Her heart raced, France. He was stationed in France

"Miss Cohen... Miss Cohen did you hear me?" She snapped back to her surroundings, she cleared her throat.

"Yes Doctor, I'd be honored to go. I'll start packing immediately." The old doctor smiled at her for what she deemed the first time. "Good girl, you're one hell of a nurse." He nodded at her dismissing her and she moved quickly to her room. She sat on her bed and rubbed her hands over her face trying to hold back the swirling emotions.

She was going to Clichy, for the first time in nearly 6 months she had the ghost of a chance at seeing him. She quickly sat down at her desk and wrote out a quick note telling him when she would arrive. She knew he would come to her. He had to.

She settled into her bed but she knew she would not sleep, not just yet. She quietly lit a candle and brought out Donny's latest letter that she kept tucked under her pillow.

_Baby Doll,_

_Have I told you lately that I love you? I just wanted to start out with something to make you smile. I miss you, I look at those pictures you sent every morning as soon as I wake up and every night before I go to bed, especially before I go to bed. I'm thinking the way I'm making short work of these Krauts we'll be at home in Boston for the New Year. How do you feel about catchin' some Sox games with your man this summer?_

_Thinkin' things like that is really what keeps me goin'. You're what keeps me goin' sweetheart. I love you._

_Always,_

_Your Sergeant._

She read over his letters at least once a night. She ran her fingers over the big messy scrawl he wrote in. She missed him, she missed his bluster, she missed his over inflated ego, she missed the way he looked sideways at her with the crooked grin. She sighed and gently folded the letter up again before she laid her head down.

That letter was from 2 weeks ago. She was always nervous when she didn't hear from him. She wondered how she would even know if the worst were to happen. They weren't engaged, they weren't married, she didn't even know if he'd told his parents about her. She could very well be waiting on a dead man as she laid there. Her heart started to beat fast and she held her breath to try to keep herself from sobbing. She looked to the picture on her desk, the one of he and her standing tall and smiling outside of the hospital. She would always have in him that picture, just like she had Abe.

At the thought of him her eyes shifted to the family photo in the next frame. Five smiling faces stared back at her but it was the one coming from the boy in the airmen's uniform that made her beart ache. He looked like he always did, a little too tall, a little too at ease in his stance. His smile all crooked and a little goofy, but still endearing and handsome. It was the day he'd shipped off.

He'd worked for months to get his pilot's license and now he was ready to ship off to Europe. He'd be flying bombers over England and France and he was fired up to go.

"Nil," He'd always called her Nil even though one pronouced her name "Nahlee", he liked it because it meant zero and he always said when they were kids that he was one when she was zero so he was a year older than her "I've been training for this for years. I've always wanted to be a pilot, and now I got the chance to do that and serve my country."

"I know Abe, but I'm worried about you, you're my big brother."

"Aren't I supposed to be the one worried about you? You're going off to nursing school all by yourself."

"I'm not going to be shot at, besides what about baseball, that was your dream too. You just got the Yankees, Abe. Training camp starts in a month."

He laughed and ran a hand through his dark curly hair "Baseball's just a game, kid. This is for keeps." He eyed her hard and then his face turned serious "I've heard things Nil, things about what they're doing to our people over there. I can't let it happen without doing something."

She nodded and hugged her brother. "Then I'll follow you, as soon as I'm done with nursing school. I'm elisting. If you're fighting I'm fighting with you, just like Frankie Giambunco in 2nd grade."

He laughed as he rubbed his sister's back

"I know better than to try to stop you Nili, if you want to do it then do it. I could never be anything but proud of you."

Her eyes stung with tears. Seven months later they'd had a knock at the door. Her mother opened it to find 2 dressed officers and a folded flag.

Nili had finished nursing school a few months later and as much as it killed her mother, she enlisted. She had to finish out what her brother started, she had to continue on for him, his fight was her fight.


	6. Six

Donny trudged through the mud just a few steps behind Aldo. They'd been off intercepting a supplies caravan a few days walk from Clichy and now they were finally getting back to their base camp. It'd been a tough mission and Donny's leg ached a little.

"Whudyah say boys, how abouts we drop in on the Madame and see if we can't wrangle a hot shower and maybe a bite?"

The other boys whooped and hollered. They loved the Madame and her girls. Donny was ambivalent though. He could use a hot shower but he hated how the whores fawned over him. They were too painted up and perfumed and tried too hard to try to entice him to their beds.

Utivich moved up to meet Donny's stride as they walked. "So what Sarge, you not happy about the whorehouse? At least you get your letters."

Donny didn't prickle when Utivich mentioned his letters. He liked Utivich, he was easy and he didn't pry like Hirshberg and Omar.

"Yeah, s'been a while since I heard from her."

Utivich nodded and Donny knew he wanted to ask about her, who she was, where she was from. The men were curious about the woman the Bear Jew was always writing. He told them nothing, exploded if anyone asked, hell he'd almost killed HIrschberg just for looking at her picture.

Before Utivich could ask Donny made sure none of the other men were listening "Her name's Nili. She's a nurse."

Utivich just nodded and smiled a little "She the one that took care of you after the ambush in Sicily?"

"Yeah, she did. Ya' know Utivich, from the minute I saw her I knew she was it. It's a real fuckin' funny thing."

"Whats she look like?"

Donny thought about it for a moment, then took another peak, they had fallen back behind the other Basterds and they were all engaged in trying to fish together money and talking about what they would do at the whorehouse.

Donny reached into his left breast pocked and pulled out the small Hebrew Bible he kept there. He opened the worn leather cover and took out the envelope that kept his pictures safe. He handed Utivich the close up. He trusted him.

Utivich studied the picture closely and Donny watched as his mouth opened a little and he mumbled something to himself as he shook his head. "Well... shit"

Donny felt his heart swell with pride "Yeah, she's somethin else isn't she?" He reached for his picture but Utivich held it tight.

"I know this girl."

Donny's eyes widened as he studied Utivich "You do?"

"Yeah, this is Nili Cohen, I went to schule with her brother Abe, we grew up together."

Donny regarded Smithson with a new light. This man knew about his girl, knew about her family. He'd never asker her because it seemed like there was a sad story there, but he was so curious.

"Really? What's her family like?"

"The Cohen's are good people, the father owns an appliance store in the Bronx, her mother bakes for the local market. Esther Cohen makes the best pastries in the 5 burroughs."

Donny nodded and smiled a little, hopefully some of that baking talent rubbed off on her daughter. He'd see soon enough when she was baking things up for him in their little brownstone.

"She have any siblings besides the brother you went to school with?"

Utivich's face darkened a little at the mention of her brother, the same look she got when she'd mentioned him in passing.

"There were 3 Cohen kids, Abe, Nili, and a little sister Rosie. Abe was my age, Nili a year younger; they were thick as theives. They never fought like me and my sister, they were more like a team. Once when we were kids Abe got into it with this big wop kid, Frankie and Frankie was beating the piss out of Abe when Nili jumped in and stomped that boy's foot so hard she broke it." Utivich chuckled and Donny smiled thinking of what she must have looked like as a kid jumping in to save her big brother.

"Abe enlisted right after he got drafted by the Yankees, that boy was the Bronx's golden child. Every mother on the block wished he was her son and that family couldn't have been prouder. He joined the airforce and easily made the cut to become a pilot. He shipped out in '42 and a few months later he was shot down over the English Channel on a bombing raid. I left Columbia and enlisted after I heard. He was my best friend growing up, and this girl; she was like my own sister. Nili enlisted with me."

Donny took in every word Utivich told him, commiting it all to memory. His heart ached for his girl and the loss of her brother. Now he knew why she looked so sad when she spoke of him. He was her hero and he'd been killed. That was why she had said she wasn't interested in servicemen.

"Well, shit Utivich."

Suddenly Utivich's face turned serious "You don't fool around with her Donny. She's a good girl."

Donny bristled at that. "I'm not fooling around with anything Utivich, why do you care, did you hold a candle for her or something?" Donny would kill him if he tried to take her.

Utivich shook his head "No Donny, cool it for God's sake. I was just saying, Nili's a great girl. Like I said, I love her like I love my own sister and since Abe's gone I feel like I owe it to him to watch out for her."

"Well, I'll tell you this right now Utivich, and don't you forget. No one else will ever love that girl like I do. She's it for me, there's never going to be anyone else and as soon as we kill every kraut fucker standing in the way I'm gonna to marry her. You have my word, and I've give her the entire fuckin' world on a silver platter."

Utivich softened, and he let an honest smile creep onto his face. "I don't think Abe would have let her settle for anything less."

The men fell into an easy silence as they continued the trudge to Clichy. Donny had gained a new respect for the Little Man, and the Little Man saw a whole new side of the Bear Jew.

Donny rubbed the white towel through his hair as he stepped out of the bathroom into the thickly perfumed air of Marie San Laurant's "salon". He'd had a hot shower for the first time in near a month and he was more than thankful. He moved down into the parlor and motioned for Utivich to go take his turn. He heaved himself down into a chair next to Aldo who had the buxom Madame perched on his lap.

"Monsiuer Donowitz, your letters have been overflowing in your absence. Your girl back home must have much to say to you, I am hoping you are not in trouble. We feared we may have been watched so we stopped retrieving mail for a few weeks. Now you have a stack of letters waiting for you." The Madam gestured for one of her younger girls to bring over the stack of mail and Donny grabbed them up from her plump fingers not even notcing the way she eyed him and purred.

He'd been waiting for weeks to hear from Nili, he'd been so preoccupied with getting the layers of dirt and sweat and blood off him that he'd forgotten to ask for his letters when they first entered.

Now he had a stack of 5 sitting in his lap with Aldo and Marie watching him expectantly, the other bastards were all taking time with some of Marie's eager working girls. Donny ripped into the newest letter first disregarding his usual ritual of going for the oldest. He hoped what was inside did not start with "Dear John..."

_My Sergeant,_

_It's been weeks since I've heard from you, and I am praying every minute of the day that it isn't because you're hurt somewhere where I can't get to you. I'm writing now to tell you that I've just gotten word that I will be transferred from Sicily and although it hurts me to leave this place, as it holds my memories of you I'm hoping that my new assignment may bring me closer to you. _

_I am being moved to a hospital just outside Clichy in France. I know from your last few letters that you were somewhere in France, and I have to ask that if you are able, please, please come to me. _

_I miss you Sergeant, and I want nothing more than to see you again._

_Yours always,_

_Nili._

Donny let the letter fall as he stood up sharply. "Aldo, I need to get into town tonight."

The older man just took another bump of snuff and wrapped his arm around the woman on his lap. "Well, shit Donny, why do you gutta do that? I wanted to talk to you about where we hit next from here. Did your girl dump you or somethin'? If she did we got whores right here to take care of you, no need to go find a girl in town."

Donny picked up his letter quickly and carefully put it back in his envelope before he turned back to his Sergeant. "No, Aldo. I do have to go find a girl in town, my girl. She's at the hospital in Clichy."

Aldo leaned back in his chair and whistled low "Well, that's a horse offa diff'ernt color now isn't it."

Donny was itching to go and he knew he was going to find a way there even if he had to fight through Aldo Raine himself.

"Aldo." His voice was a low growl and Aldo knew nothing would stop the Bear Jew.

"Alright Don," He turned to Marie "Can your girls get Don some clean clothes and a ride to the hospital?"

Marie narrowed her eyes in thought and she quickly conferred in French with a few of the girls that lazed about the room. She got them up and sent them running in different directions.

"I can get you clothes and a ride to within a mile of the hospital. You will have to walk from there. Be ready in a half hour."

With that Donny was up and out of the room in a heartbeat.

Nili was dog tired as she finally finished her rounds and retired back to her room. The nurses' barracks in Clichy were larger than the ones in Sicily, they were set up in a small inn and Nili had her own room with a small attached bath. She drew the bath and began to undress herself.

After her bath she dressed herself in her nightgown and took to the comfort of her little bed. She pulled out her writing utensils and an old chart board and she began to write from her bed.

Her heart was heavy when she wrote him now. It had been over a month since she had heard from him. She had been in Clichy for almost 2 weeks and he had yet to come to her. Everyday without word from him brought her closer to thinking that he was gone from her forever. Still she wrote him every single day. She had promised.

She was finishing up her letter when she heard a sound at her window. She looked up but thought nothing of it, probably only a Junebug hitting the window. She bent her head again when she heard two more sharp little impacts, then a third and a fourth that put a hairline crack in her window. She sprang up and ran over to the window and looked down to see a man standing below her window, his face obscured by a thick cap. She opened her window to shout out at him and when she stuck head out her breath hitched as he looked up at her.

"Hey gorgeous, can I climb up?"

Before she could speak he was on the thick ivy snaking up the old inn and making his way up to her second floor window.

The climb was short, maybe only 15 feet and Donny made it easily to with a few inches of her window before she dissapeared inside and he climbed in behind her.

"Sergeant?" Her voice was questioning but he knew she recognized him.

He couldn't contain himself as he grabbed her up and kissed her with a fury that'd been brewing for six months. He reached down brazenly from her waist to her bottom and then to her thighs where he picked her up and wrapped her legs around his waist. She yelped into his mouth in surprise and almost struggled a little but he easily held her in place while he walked her to her bed and laid her down gently while he poised himself on top of her.

His blood was fire in his veins. He hadn't been able to control himself when he saw her standing there in her nightdress with her tangled hair curling all the way down her back and her cheeks flushed.

"Nili." His voice was sandpaper rough as he finally pulled his lips from hers. "I've missed you so much, baby doll."

She raked her fingers over his face and into his hair, trying to validate for her still questioning mind that he was really there.

"Oh I've missed you too," Her lips showered his face with little kisses "I was so scared."

He just chuckled a little weaving his hands through her hair as he supported himself on his forearms. "I told you, like fucking cockroaches, baby. That's why you better not get sick of me."

Nili couldn't help but laugh at him. He was still the same. Still her bull headed Sergeant.

"So, since I'm here, and since you're underneath me..." He let his voice trail off as he roved her body with his eyes

She shook her head and rolled her eyes as she pushed herself up on one forearm and use her other to point a finger into his chest pushing him away from her.

"I've told you I'm a nice Jewish girl, Sergeant. I may love you, but I'm not going to bed with you until I'm a married woman."

His face moved into a stupid smirk as he rolled to his side on her small bed and he put his hands behind his head and chuckled lightly. She didn't know what he was getting at, something she'd said had put him right back into his old bluster.

"What?" She turned on her side to face him, her eyes wide and her brow furrowed

"You said you loved me."

She was stunned at herself. She had admitted it to herself months ago, but she had never said it to him, or even had the courage to write it, yet the second he was in front of her she was slipping it into a rejection of a cheap sex joke he made.

"Well, I suppose I did. Are you happy now Sergeant? I love you." She was matter of fact now and his smile just grew wider before he leaned over to kiss her. He hooked an arm around her back and pulled her to stretch her body across his chest.

"I love you too, Nili Cohen. And, my name is Esa."

Her mouth dropped a little as he finally told her his given name. "Esa... Rough. It fits you."

He laughed again sending vibrations up through his chest to shake her a little as he rubbed the small of her back, his other hand still behind his head. "You don't know the half of it." He opened his mouth into a cocky grin and wiggled his eyebrows hinting at the other connotations of rough.

"You're a pig sometimes." She tried to sound exasperated with him but she could barely mask her joy at having him here with her. She laid her head on his chest and busied her fingers making little shapes on his shirt. He kissed the top of her head again and laid back in her soft bed.

"It's been weeks since I've been in a bed you know." His voice broke their contented silence as he laid little kisses into her hair. She lifted her cheek form his chest to look him in the face.

"Where do you sleep?" Her question was obvious, but she was curious. She wanted to know where he had been all this time. If she was going to worry about him, she wanted to do it properly.

"The ground, in ditches, tunnels, abandoned houses. Kinda just where ever we can find cover."

She took it in and he could tell she was debating whether she could ask him about what he did. His softened his face and gave her a look that told her to ask him. She took a deep breath and finally asked the question that had been plaguing her for months.

"Where have you been Esa?" Hearing her use his real name sent chills down his spine. It made him feel like he was hers and only hers. She would be the only one to call him by that name.

"I've been on a covert operation." His voice was weary and he did not know if he should tell her about his mission. Not because he was worried about compromising the security of it, but because he was unsure of whether or not she would still love him after she knew what he had done.

He took a deep breath and decided to tell her. "After Sicily Aldo was approached by the brass, you see he and I, we had a bit of reputation." She fixated on him as he spoke, her eyes following his words.

"What kind of reputation?"

He sighed deep and kissed her once more, rubbing her cheek, he hoped she would understand.

"A reputation for brutality. Aldo and I were very, very good at the art of war. When we would capture battalions of krauts we would use certain tactics to gain information. The brass heard about us and they had been toyin' with the idea of a guerilla mercenary unit and they decided we were the men to do the job."

Her eyes narrowed a little, "But I though you were in the 101st Airborne?"

"I am, according to the paperwork. As far as the official documents are concerned my unit doesn't exist."

"What do you do Sergeant?" Her eyes were searching his face

"Our primary objective is to kill Nazis, any and every Nazi we meet. We're what you would call an Apache Resistance. We're supposed to be a scare tactic for the Nazis. A kind of nightmare that comes to life."

"So you are a killer?" She seemed a little frightened

"Every soldier is a killer, sweetheart." He touched her cheek gently to see if she would flinch away, yet she did not. Instead she looked as if she were thinking very hard for a moment and indeed she was.

"I think you are very brave, Esa Donowitz. Those monsters do unspeakable things to men, women, and even children. I have treated them all here and I would say that if I were given the chance at a German with a pistol I would gladly take it." She stroked his face and kissed him lovingly.

"That's the difference between you and me baby, I use a bat."

She picked her head off him again and eyed him "You use a bat?"

"Yes, I beat men to death with the same bat you signed and held 6 months ago."

This news should have scared her, should have made her think him a monster. But it did not, he was a protector. He had a task that he had to fufill and he was carrying out only vengence.

"And... this scares the Germans?"

He chuckled darkly and nodded smiling "Oh it sure a shit does, they think I'm a golem. The call me 'The Bear Jew'"

She nodded her head, hearing him speak like this was inciting a part of her that she had been trying to bury, the part that thirsted for revenge. Needed to feel validated after the death of her brother and for the carnage she saw everyday. Knowing he was carrying the revenge of their people out caught her in a delicious limbo of lust for his strong body and excitement paired with the intense attachment they had already formed.

She smiled a cat's smile at him and her eyes seemed to become even more alluringly upturned as she shifted herself to lay ontop of the length of his body, entangling their legs. She crawled up his chest a little writhing her body against him and making him swallow hard.

"The Bear Jew?" Her voice was almost a purr

"That's your man, baby." His voice was thick and he moved his hand from under the pillow to rest in the dip of her back just before her bottom.

"Oh, so you're my Bear Jew?" She ran her fingers in circles on his chest while not breaking eye contact. The sparks were electric between them and it felt like both their bodies were live wires.

"Only yours." He began to rub her back and he inched his hand down towards her ass, longing to grab her and hike up her night dress.

She closed the distance between their lips and he kissed her so hard she thought her lips would bruise, but it exhilerated her. She wanted to feel him, after so long without him it was still hard to believe that he was actually here. He grunted and pulled her up a little further and his hands were like wildfire moving over every inch of her he could touch. He pushed his tongue into her mouth and he fought her for dominance inside of their teeth. His hands moved down to grab her ass and he squeezed as he heard her squeal. He flipped their bodies and perched himself on top of her and manuvered himself between the silky skin of her thighs. He pressed his groin hard into hers and he could feel her heartbeat quicken underneath the thin silk of her nightdress. He trailed his hands down her ribs and felt the lean muscle of her contracting as she breathed hard. He quickly moved his hands down further and grabbed the hem of her nightdress and tried to pull it up before her hands stopped him.

"Sergeant," She whispered as she pulled away "We can't, not yet."

He groaned loudly, he was already aroused. But he couldn't be mad at her, she was a good girl.

"I know Nili, you're just..." He breathed out hard trying to steady himself as he rolled off of her "You're so fuckin' gorgeous and you turn me on even when you don't mean it and when you do things like that. Say things that sexy. I can't help myself."

She gently shifted and moved herself back on his chest "I'm sorry darling." She kissed his cheek chastely. She knew he was frustrated with her, but he was trying not to show it. He put his one hand back under his head and the other he tangled in her hair again as he watched her lay on his chest.

"I mean it's not like I'm not gonna marry you. As soon as this war's over I'm taking you home with me. We're gonna get us a brownstone on the Back Bay you can work Mass General, but only if you want to. We'll get a nice car, a dog, and just start makin' gorgeous little babies."

She laughed a little at hearing him turn from talking about bashing in men's skulls to talking about getting a car and a dog and making babies.

"Well, I have to go home to New York first, I have a family that has been missing me too."

"We can go back to New York for a visit as soon as I've got a ring on your finger. I'd marry you right goddamn now if we could wrangle up a Rabbi."

She snorted again and he smiled seeing her make such an unattractive noise, she even looked nice doing that.

"No, Esa Donowitz, you'll have to wait just a little longer after the war. You'll go home to Boston, and I'll go home to New York and after a week my parents and my sister and I will drive up to Boston and we'll get married then. It's important for me to have my family there."

He sighed and nodded, kissing the top of her head. "You're right baby doll. I just need to end this war quickly then, huh?"

She nodded and laid little kisses on his chest "Will you stay here with me tonight?"

He almost hesitated for a moment, he knew he should get back to the brothel. Aldo and the men would be waiting for him... But he couldn't leave her, not now that he was laying in bed with her kissing his chest like this.

"Of course baby."

She smiled and sat up a little, her nightdress' strap slid down her shoulder as she did and Donny watched it longingly. He knew he couldn't fuck her that night, but he sure as shit wanted to, now that he knew what it felt like to be perched above her pressing himself between her legs. He fought hard to steady his breath and not let himself get hard again.

"Then let me take off your boots, your feet must be aching." She got up quickly as he watched her move down to his feet quickly untying his boots. He thought of his own mother doing this for his father every night when he got home from the barber shop. She slid his warn boots off and made a face at the holes that were slowly wearing in them. He was silently thanking himself for putting on clean socks as she moved to sit on the end of the bed taking one of his feet in her lap. She rubbed his feet slowly, feeling how tense they were.

He let his eyes close and a grunt of relief escape him as he felt her hands on his aching feet. The Basterds were anything but easy on themselves and most of the time he ignored the constant aches in his body, but now she was slowly causing every one to leak away from him.

"Mhmm, woman; That feels fantastic."

She snorted at him again and laughed a little. "My mother always used to do this for my father when he got home from work."

"Mine too. I guess it must just be a good Jewish housewife trait."

She slapped at the top of his foot and he cracked an eye to grin at her. "I'm no Jewish housewife yet."

"Don't remind me" He groaned "If you were then I'd be across this bed in a heartbeat makin' love to you."

She shook her head as she moved to his other foot. He let his eyes close again as he enjoyed her touches. After a moment she finished and moved up next to him on the bed. "Turn over."

He opened his eyes and looked at her sitting above him. "Hmm?"

"Turn over, I'll rub your back sweetheart."

He grinned and did as he was told turning on to his stomach and crossing his arms under his head. He felt her straddle his hips and he groaned a little into the pillow feeling the skin of her thighs rub against the skin of his waist exposed by his shirt riding up. Perhaps sleeping here was going to prove harder that he thought, literally.

She kneaded the tired and tight muscles of his back with a surgeon's expertise. The tightness that had been constricting him for months was melting away at her hands.

"Oh sweetheart," he grumbled into the pillow as she worked hard at his broad shoulder

She chuckled a little, his accent was so thick when he spoke to her like that. Some might have considered it gruff and vulgar, but it was just another facet of her man to her. She ran her hands over the tight sinews of muscle that made up the bulk of his frame. Each of his shoulders was the size the big pigskin footballs her brother used to have. He was a huge hard man and she could feel the raw power of him as she perched herself on his back. No wonder the Germans called him "The Bear Jew", he was a bear of a man. He exuded the epitome of masculinity from every pore. Running her hands over him she began to feel the buildings of her own lust growing within her belly. She shifted on his back and she could feel his shirt ride up and the exposed skin of his side rub against her inner thighs. The feeling of bare skin on bare skin excited her and she let out a little mew of surprise as he shifted underneath her. She pulled her hands from his back and sat up a little on her heels as he suddenly rolled over underneath her. Her eyes widened in surprise as she realized the compromising position they were now in. He ran his hands over her thighs and grinned like the bastard he was at her surpise.

"You look extra gorgeous from down here sweetheart."

She swatted his hands away and climbed off of him, though not before he caught a peak at the black silk panties she wore under her nightdress.

"You're incourigable, Sergeant." She moved beside him and cuddled herself up to his side.

"I just want what I want, baby doll. And that's only you." He cupped her cheek and kissed her lazily.

They stayed that way for the rest of the night. Holding eachother and kissing slowly, as if they had all the time in the world.


	7. Seven

She woke the next morning to the sun shining through her thin white curtains. She felt for his large form next to her, but she knew he was gone. She opened her eyes and saw his jacket and boots were missing as well. She had expected it though. She knew he would be called back to his unit. She had only hoped that she would get to wake with him.

She turn to the pillow he'd been resting on and found a folded piece of paper laying there. She picked it up and as she did a little silver chain fell from the fold. She reached down and found a silver neckace with a large silver ring on it. She smiled at it and draped it over her head and around her neck, it hung low on her and the ring settled itself between her breasts. She patted the ring then turned her attention to the note he had left.

_Baby Doll, _

_I had to leave early and I couldn't stand to wake you, you looked so fuckin' beautiful asleep like that. I promise last night won't be the last you see of me. I hope you like what I left you, I know it's not quite Tiffany's but it's all I have for now, it was my Grandfather's wedding ring and he made it through The Great War with it, and I figured it must have some kind of luck. Wear it until I can get you the real deal. _

_I love you, Nili Cohen_

_Esa_

She rose with a smile as she touched the ring again and moved to the bathroom where she washed and readied herself for her rounds that day.

His walk back to the whorehouse was much longer now that he didn't have a truck to take him halfway. He pulled his leather jacket tighter round himself as he finally came into view of the old house.

He clunked through the front door and set down his jacket and pistol. He heard the other men in the kitchen with a few of the girls, and he knew he would have to show his face in there. He stretched a little as he stood back up and marvelled at how rested he felt. He'd gotten the best night's sleep he'd had in months in her cozy little bed last night. He'd only slep a few hours by the clock's count, but it was something about having her warm little form draped across his chest that made it feel like he'd slept for years.

He wanderd into the kitchen to see Aldo, Utivich and Omar sitting at the table while Hirschberg and Stiglitz and Wicki were perched on the countertop. There were working girls littered around the room each one paying special attention to one of the men. Aldo had his plump little Marie stationed on his lap as usual and he was letting her feed him grapes.

"Well, well, well. Looky who decided to fin'lly come back." Aldo whistled low as Donny pulled out a chair and grabbed an apple from the large bowl in the center of the table.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm back." Donny bit into his apple and tried to avoid all eye contact from the other men and giggling women.

Aldo wasn't having that though. He sunk his head down to find Donny's gaze and he smiled his crooked smile.

"So, how was your night with the Missus?" He asked in his same cavalier tone

"She's not my missus..." He grumbled like a stubborn child

"Well, then you won't mind if Hirschberg here takes a trip over to the hospital and asks her on a date now will yah Don?"

Donny knew Aldo was only trying to push his buttons, he was angry at him for not returning earlier. Before the kid could even speak Donny turned to him with a fire in his eyes.

"If you even think of speaking to her I'll fuckin' kill you Hirschberg. She's not my wife... yet, but she is my girl."

Aldo cackled a little and ripped a bump of snuff out of his tin. Donny sat back and chewed his apple glaring at the Lieutenant.

"Well, while you were off doing' God-only-knows-what with your little Missus, Donny, the rest of us less privledged Basterds were gettin' to work. You're behind on the times now Sergeant."

Donny perked up and locked eyes with Aldo, "What'd I miss, Where're we goin'?"

Aldo laughed and sat back slapping Marie on her ass and pushing her up off of his lap. "If you wouldn't mind girls, we need some alone time with the boys See-vo-plays."

The women just shrugged and scowled as they peeled themselves from the men and walked out of the room.

The air in the room reverted to that of business as Aldo planted his elbows on the table and his eyes turned hard to Donny and the other men.

"I've gotten word from one of our lovely little working girls that a group of high rankers are coming in tonight down the Old Clichy Road, and we're gunna be waitin' for 'em, and when they get here, well cousin, we're gonna give 'em one hell of a welcome."

Donny felt a slow smile creep onto his face as he got that familiar tingle in his finger tips. "I guess I better get my bat ready then Leuitenant."

Nili was up to her elbows in blood. The man in front of her was clearly dying. He had a hole in stomach where his intestines should have been and yet he was still awake and screaming. She was trying frantically to calm him and pump him full of enough morphine to take away at least some of his pain so he could die with dignity. He gasped and gurgled and she swore like a sailor and tried to stop the blood. His wounds were bleeding too slow to kill him from blood loss and the organ's he'd lost were not immediately vital, he was caught in a slow and painful limbo between death and hell.

There had been a small skirmish earlier and a German grenade had blown a platoon to pieces and the hospital had been overrun with the casualties. The poor man in front of her had been one of them.

She searched hard for more morphine, but she couldn't deplete the stores any more for this man, he would die no doubt.

She finally could do nothing more and she just took his hand and sat by him, silently staring at the wall. He gripped her hand and screamed and begged for death, she just sat by and knew she was powerless to help him. She looked down at him, he was in his mid thirties, an officer. His left hand had a simple gold wedding band and her heart ached for him. He was probably married, maybe even with children. After what seemed like hours Nili finally felt his grip slacken and his hand grow cold, but still she sat by and held his hand.

"Nili, honey." One of the doctors came up and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder "He's gone, he's been gone. We have to move him."

She sat up blind and stiff and moved away from the bed, the doctors covered the man with a sheet and Nili suddenly became aware of how much blood she was covered in. She tried to wipe her hands on her apron but it was just as soaked in blood.

The middle aged doctor just patted her shoulder and forced her out of her daze to look at him

"Nili, I think you should take the rest of the night off, and tomorrow too. You deserve a break girl. Go rent a room for the night and get away from this place for a little while. You're one of our best nurses but you won't be useful to us if you die of exhaustion."

She nodded and managed out a "Thank you" before she turned on her heel and walked back to her room. She needed to get this blood off of her, she couldn't shake the image of the poor man out of her head. She hope her Sergeant would come to her tonight, she needed the comfort of his arms.

Donny and Wicki were tucked up behind a boulder waiting patiently for the sound of the jeep to come down the road. Aldo and Utvich were behind the tree 3 clicks to the left of them and Stiglitz, Ulmer, and Hirschberg were scattered throughout the trees with the other Basterds.

Donny carefully ran his hand over the smooth wood of his bat strapped to his right leg. He stopped when he reached the logo and the name he'd carved deep into the grain of the wood. He made himself think of what would happen if he didn't kill these men.

They would ride into Clichy and they would be one step closer to her. They would be able to find her and hurt her. It was no secret that hospitals were prized targets. He loved and hated having her so close to him. He loved that he could see her, but he hated that she was also close to danger.

His ears perked as his heard the faint sound of turning dirt down the road. He looked at Wicki and both men turned and shared a devious smile. It was business time now.

Donny and Wicki stepped out into the road with Aldo and Utvich next to them. They planted smirks on their faces as the jeep neared closer. The headlights on it had a short range and they knew this. They knew by the time those drunk kraut bastards even had an inkling they were there they'd be down in a hail of gunfire.

Donny raised his machine gun and the only thing on his mind was to stop these men before they moved one foot closer to Clichy.

"Ready on three boys." Aldo said quietly

"One..."

The headlights on the jeep were in view and closing fast

"Two..."

They could feel the dirt at their feet shaking with the vibrations of the vehicle

"Two an' a half.." They would be within the range of the headlights in a moment

"Three" The jeep was right in front of them and they opened up on it.

Donny growled out as he emptied his clip into the car as it came to a screaching halt a few feet from the Basterds.

They stopped shooting once the car stopped and Donny and Wicki went to check for any survivors. Donny walked up to the driver's side door and smirked when he saw the mangled skull drooped on the wheel, but a split second later he heard a gunshot and saw Wicki drop clutching his side. The man in the backseat was shot but not dead and he was fumbling with his gun readying to shoot at Donny. Donny had his pistol before the man could react and he'd shot the revolver out of his hand and grabbed the wounded man by the hair pulling him from the jeep.

"What the fuck do you think you're doin' you kraut lovin' mother fucker?" Donny took a hard swat with his bat at the man's back sending him reeling to the ground and sputtering in the head lights of the jeep.

"Jesus Christ Donowitz, don't start that shit yet, Wicki are you alright?"

Hirschberg and Utvich had already lifted Wicki from the ground and he was holding his side but he managed to give Aldo a thumbs up.

"Alright den." Aldo said spiting a wad of tobacco before he moved in front of the felled German. "Pleased to make your aquaintance" He checked the man's insignias "Major..."

"Weber." The man choked out spitting blood into the dark dirt.

"Right den, Major Weber."

"Vayber, you ignorant fuck." The man coughed out again before Donny's boot collided with his side.

"You really think I'm in this for formalities? No sir, my business is killin'. Now as you can see, or rather as you couldn't see; we're good at what we do sir. Do you know who we are?"

"You're the filthy Savage and these are your Jew hell hounds."

"That sure is one way of puttin' it. I'm Leuitenant Aldo Raine and these are the Basterds. That handsome fella you shot is Wilhelm Wicki and I think you know who the big fucker next to you is."

"The Bear Jew..."

"Damn fuckin' right." Donny said smirking, he could feel his muscles tingling and calling out to feel his bat connect; it was the same feeling he got everytime he used to step up to the plate in baseball.

"I will tell you nothing you fucking kikes." Donny would give him one thing, this fucker was defiant.

"Now that's the type of rudeness I can't abide." Aldo said shaking his head "I'm not even gon' offer trash like you a reprieve. Donny take care of 'im. Then we gotta go find your nurse and get her to take care of Wicki.

"A nurse?" The man on the ground laughed and rolled around spitting out blood as he cackled "You have been shoving your dirty Jew cock into a nurse? I bet she is a real first class Jew whore, does she take all of you at once?"

Donny lost it. His vision went black and he could barely breath through his rage. No one. No. One. Spoke about his girl like that.

"You don't even know what you just did." Donny said deathly calm.

The rest of the bastards turned to watch him. They had never seen the Bear Jew this way before, usually he was all bluster and screaming. Now he was calm and collected as he picked the man up and set him on his knees.

"Is this how your kike whore does it for you, on her knees while the savage fucks her from behind."

Donny stood to the side of the man and he dropped his head and shook out his arms and the bat loosening himself up. The men were entranced, it was like watching Lou Gehrig or Ted Williams step up to the plate.

Donny picked up his shoulders and swung an easy stroke stopping just before the man's head, he flinched and opened his eyes when he did not feel the bat connect "Strike one." Donny said quietly. He picked his bat up again and made another swing faster this time and he stopped a hair's breadth from the man's face again "Strike two." He pulled the bat back again and squared his shoulders for the next hit. The mens' breath hitched in their throat as he swung again, the swing was monsterous. The bat connected hard and the Basterds watched as the Major's head slammed back and they heard the sick crunch of his face breaking and the bones of his skull and neck fracturing.

Donny let the man drop and turned wiping a smear of blood across his forehead as he walked over to the Jeep. "Come on Hirschberg, get Wicki into the Jeep, I'll take him to get Nili, the rest of you boys go get the brothel ready. She'll need boiling water and towels as well as something to bandage him up."

The Basterds were stunned. There was no shouting, no Teddy Ballgame cracks, no running of the bases.

Aldo shook his head and quickly regained control. "Alright then, listen to Donny, let's go. Utivich, Stiglitz, Omar, and the rest of you boys come with me, Hirschberg you go with Wicki and Donny, get the nurse and come back to the house."

Donny was already behind the wheel and Hirschberg helped Wicki to lay down across the backseat. Once Hirschberg was settled in the passenger seat Donny put the pedal to the floor of the Jeep and tore off towards the hospital.

Nili was making herself a cup of tea on the small hot plate in her room when she heard a vehicle stop short outside of her window and someone blare on a horn. She pulled her robe around her as she turned and looked out the window.

Her breath stopped when she saw Donny standing up in a Jeep with another man in the passenger seat and a prone man laying across the backseat. She opened her window and he yelled to her

"Nili, get dressed and grab your kit. We need you."

"What Sergeant? What happened? Get him into the hospital!"

He shook his head and she could hear the fervor in his voice "No we can't we need you to come with us, now get dressed and get down here now!" His voice heald a note of authority she wasn't used to hearing from him when he spoke to her and she knew he was serious.

"Okay, okay. I'll be down in a minute. It was to be her day off and she didn't have her usual nurses uniform ready so instead she pulled on the red floral warp dress she had set out to wear the next day. She pulled on a pair of brown heels and grabbed her medical kit before hurrying out to the car hurriedly pulling her hair up in a comb as she ran down the stairs and out to the waiting jeep.

Donny was waiting for her once she got out of the door and he quickly tugged her towards the Jeep, "This is Wicki, he's been shot in the side, we don't know how bad it is he was awake but he's been fading since we got here."

Nili's face changed in front of Donny's eyes as soon as she saw the injured man. She side stepped him and opened the Jeep door and moved into the back seat with Wicki dropping her medical kit to the floorboards.

"Get in the car Sergeant and drive like hell, we're got to get him to a place we can get this bullet out before he gets lead poisoning. Wicki, can you hear me? I'm Nili Cohen and I'm going to be taking care of you. I need you to stay away with me."

Donny quickly reverted to business mode too and he hopped into the driver's seat. He wheeled the jeep around and took off back towards the brothel.

They got there in record time. Donny and Hirschberg helped move Wicki from the jeep and into the brothel where the girls had set up a makeshift gurney on the salon table. There was a bowl filled with water next to the table and towels stacked on the couch.

"Get him on the table and let me look at him. I'm going to need a lot more water than that," She addressed the working girls as if they were her equal nurses "And I need a burning candle too."

She opened her leather satchel and began pulling out supplies and holding them over the candle one of the girls had brought her to sterilize them. She cut off Wicki's shirt to expose the hole in his side gushing blood with every breath he took.

Donny was transfixed watching her work. He'd seen her at the hospital before, but never in a heated emergency moment like this. Her head was cool and she did everything quickly and precisly. She was in control of everything around her and it was sexy as all hell.

"Good, it's not too bad." She felt around the hole to make sure the organs around the wound were intact. "You're losing blood, the bullet is close to the surface, but you're not out of the woods yet Wicki." She pulled out a syringe and filled it with morphine before injecting it directly into Wicki's neck.

She next moved to her bag and pulled out a large pair of tongs, "Sergeant, Leuitenant, I'm going to need you to hold him down, he's not going to like this."

Donny and Aldo nodded and both took Wicki by the arms, he was barely concious but they knew as soon as he felt those tongs he was going to fight like hell. She took a deep breath and dug the tongs into the bullet hole. Wicki woke right up and roared in pain even with the morphine running through him.

"Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!" He wheezed as she dug into his wound

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I almost have it." She tried to comfort him but he was trying to writhe away from her and Donny couldn't blame him.

She dug in one more time and came out holding the bullet in the tongs. "There, we're over."

Wicki looked up at the bullet and then down at his wound before promptly passing out.


	8. Eight

Nili spent the next half hour stitching Wicki up and bandaging him. After she was done one of the girls lead her to the bathroom to wash up. Donny followed her up the stairs and stood in the doorway while she washed the blood from her hands and forearms.

She had been so focused and so in control tonight, the way she had ordered around him and the rest of the men and the attention she put into healing Wicki, it was the sexiest thing he'd ever seen. He took in the sight of her as she rubbed her arms with soap. She was not wearing what would be anyone's first choice for an emergency bullet removal. It was a red floral dress with longer short sleeves that buttoned, the dress dipped low in a V and let the tiniest bit of her slip show, it tied in a wrap at the smallest part of her slender waist and flowed down to her knee. Her hair was pulled into the low haphazard bun he had become used to seeing on her. Little spiral curls were falling out all around her face framing her cheek bones and the line of her jaw.

She turned around after wiping the excess water from her hands to see him standing in the door way. She walked over to him and wrapped her arms around his thick middle pressing her cheek to his chest and inhaling him deeply.

"Hello" She whispered against his chest, he slid a hand around her waist and his other one in his favorite spot tangled in her thick curls next to her cheek. "Hello sweetheart."

He pulled her face away from his chest gently and swooped down to kiss her deeply. He pressed her back up against the doorframe and held her flush against him feeling the warmth and softness of her body meeting his. He slid his hand down her neck and to the back of her head where he tugged a little moving her face to the side so he could trail kisses down her jaw and the side of her neck. She made a little noise of pleasure as he slid his hand up her hip and her ribs then back down again. He moved his body a little closer pushing her away from the door frame and up against the wall outside of the small washroom. He kissed his way back to her mouth where he pressed his lips to hers forcefully pushing his tongue into her mouth and tightening his hold on her hair. She moved her hands to grip his face tightly then she slid them around his back to rake her nails over his broad shoulders through his khaki shirt.

He broke away from her lips for a heartbeat and whispered "I love you Nili Cohen" into her lips before kissing her hard again. He became bold and slid his hand up her ribs to cup one of her full breasts through the fabric of her dress. She made a noise but made no move to stop him so he continued on, roving his thumb over the center and groaning as he felt the softness give way underneath his hand.

She pulled away for a moment and he could see her eyes clouded with the same lust as his "I need you." Her voice was hoarse and she pulled him back to her wrapping her arms around his neck. He moved his hands down to her thighs and pulled her up to wrap her legs around his waist, she pressed herself to him completely and she could feel his arousal pressing hard between her legs. He supported her with one arm holding her thigh and by pressing her against the wall. This let his other hand go back to roaming her breast. He moved his kisses down her neck as he nipped gently, he slid the side of her dress over a little with his hand and let his mouth follow. He gently ground his hips into hers on instinct and he could feel her arch against him. He grunted and she mewed a little rollling her head back and letting him have run of her body.

"Yeah Donny, get it!" Donny quickly pulled away from her and turned to the source of the voice, Hirschberg was walking out of one of the rooms buttoning his pants and grinning red faced and sweating.

"If you want to live another minute Hirschberg you'll get the fuck out of this hallway. Now."

The younger man laughed and shuffled his way passed them chuckling like a hyena as he did.

"Sorry sweetheart, he's just an idiot."

Nili pulled herself away from the door and moved passed him adjusting her clothing and blushing fiercely. "Come on Donny, let's go downstairs."

He moved quick and stepped in front of her laying a hand on her hip and studying her face "You called me Donny."

"I did," She said in the same matter of fact tone as the night she first told him she loved him "I thought your men would find it odd if I called you Sergeant all the time and Esa is a name for only the two of us."

Donny leaned down and kissed her again "I like when you call me that, I like when you call me anything, even pig-headed asshole."

"I've never called you a pig-headed asshole." She was indignant, if there was one thing Nili Cohen would not abide it was putting words in her mouth. "I've called you a pig headed idiot and a stubborn jackass; but never a pig headed asshole.

Donny chuckled and took her hand and lead her downstairs to the kitchen where the other Basterds sat around the kitchen table. Aldo and Marie were seated together as usual with Omar in the seat to his left and Kagan at his right, Utvich and Stiglitz were perched on the countertop and Hirschberg was leaning against a doorframe smirking when he saw them come in.

"You know Donny, I thought the Bear Jew only hit homeruns, I didn't know you stopped at second base." Omar and Utvich tried not to laugh under their breath but Donny heard it.

"Hirschberg, you're asking to get the shit beat out of you; you better not make one more comment because she's the only reason I haven't scrubbed your face in the mud yet."

Donny pulled a chair out for Nili and let her sit "You hungry, baby, I can make you a sandwich..." Donny asked as he turned to the counter top. Hirschberg giggled again but Donny worked hard to try to ignore it.

"That sounds good, sweetheart, I'm famished." She smiled at the other men as Aldo took a bump of snuff and nodded at her.

"Thank you very kindly for coming out here Nurse Cohen, we're very grateful. You did a real bang up job with Wicki."

"You're welcome Leuitenant Raine, but I just did my job. I'm bound by oath to help any of you servicemen and I'd do the same for all of you." As Donny turned around and set a sandwich out before her and took the seat next to her, she sent a dazzling smile out to each man in the room, and when Aldo saw that he got that peculiar light in his eye that always made Donny a little nervous.

"Now I like the sounda that, Nurse Cohen. It could be very, very useful having a medic on call..."

Nili cocked her a head a little at him and Donny immediately bristled "No, no, absolutely not."

"Now easy there Don, I'm talkin' to her not you." Aldo turned his head now to the intruiged Nili Cohen "I was wonderin' how you'd feel about bein' our nurse on call. You see before you got here we were employin' a doggie doc over in Nadine, but he waddn't quite what we were lookin' for. Now that we got you in a radius I think it could be very beneficial to us to be able to call on you if any one of us ever gets hurt."

Nili nodded and leaned into Aldo "Why can't you just bring your men into the hospital? You're all American servicemen..."

Aldo leaned back and jiggled Marie a little on his lap "Ya see there that's where the problem is, we're deep under cover, real deep, and your hospital also operates under that little law called the Geneva Convention, meanin' you also help some German soldiers that're taken prisoner. Now we can't have Germans knowin' any of our boys are out of commision."

Donny was seething with anger next to Nili he looked over at her and he was furious to see her nodding slowly "Alright, Leuitenant. I'll do it."

Donny stood up quickly knocking back his chair and causing a crash that made everyone in the room jump "No, I won't allow it. You can go fuck yourself Aldo Raine. You're not doing this Nili, I won't let you."

She turned on him and he could see she was not pleased with his show "I don't think you have much say in the matter Sergeant Donowitz."

"I sure as shit do, you're my girl and I need to protect you. I'm not letting you put yourself right in the line of fire like this."

The Basterds in the room had no idea what to do, no one wanted to get in the way of the Bear Jew when he was angry.

"I'm very much a free woman, Sergeant and I have a duty. If your men need me I can't refuse them." She stood up and squared off in front of him.

"You don't have to. You don't understand what kind of position you'd be putting yourself in. The Germans will find out about you and they'll kill you." He was fuming mad and pacing like a wild animal.

"I do have to, and I'm going to. Whether you like it or not."

His rage came to a head and he turned sharply and planted his fist deep into the drywall of the kitchen. He stormed past a stunned Hirschberg and up the staircase without a word.

"Jesus, he sure does have a hot streak duddn't he?" The Leuitenant was bouncing his Madame on his knee and nodding at the doorway. "Well, I'm glad you agreed Nurse Cohen you're gunna be helping us a great deal here. Now let me introduce you to the men, it's best to give Don a few minutes to cool down before you do runnin' after him like that." He nodded towards the boy at the door who'd caught them earlier "That ignorant rat is Hirschberg, but you've already had the displeasure, this is Omar and Kagan, and the man over there..." He gestured at the stone faced man sitting on the counter "Is Hugo Stiglitz our very own former Nat-zie, he turned coats as an elisted man and killed 13 officers," He pointed to the smaller man Nili haddn't gotten a chance to look at properly, but as soon as her eyes met his she knew him instantly and felt very silly at not noticing him before

"Smith!" She was out of her chair in a heartbeat and in the thin man's arms. "Oh my goodness, I can't believe you're here. Donny never mentioned... Oh I'm so happy!"

"You two know eachother?" Aldo said cocking his head

"New York Jews." Utivich said shrugging and smiling "Nili grew up a few houses down from me, her brother and I went to schule together, she's like my own kid sister."

"Well ain't this just a perddy family reunion." Aldo smirked and chuckled "Now to business, I'll send word to the Commandante of the hospital and tell him that you are on special call for us. He'll be the only other to know, you gutta keep this quiet from the other nurses, but you don't seem one for idle talk so I trust yah."

Nili nodded and smiled at the men "I'm very happy to be of service"

A steely voice from the countertop drew Nili's eyes to the corner "We are happy to have you, Miss Cohen. Thank you." Hugo Stiglitz was giving her a kind smile from his perch.

The moment was broken though when they heard a sharp crash and swearing from above them. The little woman on the Leuitenant's lap sprang up and starting cussing in fast French and batting at the man in front of her

"Shit, woman alright." He sighed and turned to Nili "Can you go check on him? Try to calm him down. Marie doesn't want him breakin' anymore of her shit"

Nili nodded and took a deep breath, she knew she needed to face him. She nodded at the men and stood quickly moving out of the room and up the stairs. As she climbed she could hear faint voices in the kitchen trailing after her

"Shit, I'd rather face a firing squad then try to go calm him down, you sure nobody should go make sure he doesn't hurt her?"

"Nah, Donny wouldn't hurt her for the world. She'll calm him right down."

"Yeah, I saw her calming him down at the top of the stairs like I told you. Shit, I'd pay a million for her to calm me down. She's fuckin' gorgeous, I'm liable to take a skim wound just to have her hands on me." Hirschberg. "Kagan can you skim me right on my thigh, nothin' serious, just enough so she'd have to patch me up."

"Shut the fuck up Hirschberg."

She did not have to look hard to find the room Donny was in, she could hear him from the top of the stairs shouting and cursing. She stood in front of the door and gathered her wits about her before opening the door. He saw her step in and he turned his eyes on her, the level of ferocity in them was startling and it almost scared her.

"You." His voice was harsh and accusing "You do not know what you've gotten yourself into." He stormed up and stood tall in front of her, she trembled a little. "Do you know how much danger you're putting yourself in? Are you even aware?" He walked away from her rubbing his face and then turned back "I am fighting this entire war to keep you safe and then you go and throw yourself to the wolves, do you know what they'll do if they link you to me? I can't even think of it!"

She cowered before him her eyes filling with tears "I have to."

"You do not have to." He fumed "That's a crock of shit!"

"I do, I want to protect you too, don't you understand? I could not live with myself if you were hurt and I was not there to help you. I have never been the type to let others fight for me. If you're fighting, I'm fighting. I won't back down. I love you."

"Goddamn it." He said gathering her up in his arms "You're as stubborn as a fuckin' mule."

She breathed deeply into him and she clutched at his chest "I love you." She whispered quietly as she let a few tears slip out.

"I love you too." He said thickly as he moved down to kiss her.

He joined their lips with a fury and a passion that she knew must have been born from his anger. It was passionate as he gripped her tight and pushed her backward until the backs of her legs hit the bed behind her. He picked her up by her thighs and sat her on the mattress and situated himself between them. He would not let her mouth away for a half second to take a breath and her mind was reeling with him. His hands were rough as he moved them under her dress rubbing her thighs and pulling her closer.

"I need you." His voice was barely a whisper against her mouth but she heard him clearly and her body responded arching against him and moving her kisses down his jaw. He was breathing hard as she moved her lips to his ear "I need you too, Esa."

He shivered as her lips graced his ear and he pressed his need up against her. She felt so hot and soft up against him and he was ready to burst. He fumbled for a heartbeat with the tie on her dress before he freed it and moved his hands to grab her through the silk of her slip. He began to unbutton his shirt with one hand while he used the other to carress her side.

She felt her dress untie but she barely registered it, all she could feel were his hands and the hot warmth of his mouth as he snaked his tongue passed her teeth.

He shrugged his shirt off and pushed the shoulders of her dress down her arms and threw it to the floor before he pushed her back on the bed.

Her eyes flew open as she felt her back collide with the soft mattress and she looked up to see him standing above her panting. His shirt was off leaving him only in his undershirt. His eyes were glazed over and she was breathing hard as she watched him take her in. She was painfully aware of how he fit between her legs as he caressed the skin there.

He rubbed soft circles in her thighs as he watched her splayed out on the bed in only her ivory chemise, her curls were fanned out behind her head and her eyes were hooded as she finally opened them to look at him. He smiled slyly at her and then dipped his head to kiss her again.

He pushed her further up the bed as he climbed on top of her pressing his body tight to to her. She could feel his erection pushing hard against her belly and she knew that she wanted him.

He could not contain himself, nor could she. He fumbled at his belt but it was undone in a moment and he was pushing his heavy pants down his legs. His ripped his undershirt off after he rose up and she took in the sight of him in only his underwear poised over her. She noted how his thick arms strained as he held himself above her and how the fabric of his undershorts tented over his cock.

He growled low in his throat and he moved his rough hands up her thighs to push up her chemise. She shivered as he uncovered her silken panties then as he exposed her stomach and finally her breasts before he pulled the garment over her head and threw it aside with her dress. He sat up to look over her and he could barely speak "You're so beautiful. I need you so bad." She quickly rose up and met him pressing herself against his naked body as she kissed him. His hands moved quickly to her chest and he ran his thumbs over her hardening nipples, she let out a little noise of pleasure as he ran a hand down the center of her chest before he moved his mouth to follow. He hooked an arm around her back holding her up while he took one of her peaks in his mouth. She cried out and ran her hands through his hair grasping and pulling at the roots. He groaned and moved his hand down to her panties easily hooking a few fingers down into them and roving just above where he knew she wanted him to go.

"Esa..." Her voice was hoarse and thick with lust "Esa..."

Hearing her say his name filled him with a new vigor, he ripped her panties down quickly and then made short work of his own. She felt his naked thighs pressing against her own and she felt his thickness as he pushed her legs aside to settle between them.

"Say my name." His voice was firm as he kissed her neck and positioned himself at her enterance. She could only gasp and moan as she felt the head of him pushing against her. He ran himself up and down her slit making her arch against him. He gripped her hips and growled out again against her neck "Say my name." He moved his face from her neck to meet her eye to eye as she writhed underneath him gasping and trying to breath as he rubbed himself against her

"Please..." She tried to press her hips against him but he held her in place.

"Say my name." He lined himself up with her enterance and pressed just a hair's breadth harder

"Esa." She breathed out as she met his eyes "Esa."

With that he buried himself in her quickly, trying to lessen the pain as he broke through. She cried out in a yelp but he kissed her and dried the tear that slipped from her eye. "I love you. I love you. I love you." He whispered little reassurances in her ear as he covered every inch of her he could with kisses.

She leveled her breathing and roved her hands over his strong arms, feeling how tense he was at the feel of being inside of her.

"You feel so good baby, so good." He could barely get the words out as his head spun. He gently rocked his hips into her as she gasped out. He stopped immediately and looked at her concerned "Did I hurt you?"

"No" She moaned out "More, please."

He had to oblige her as he began pressing himself into her once more. He rocked himself into her slowly wanting her to feel every sensation of him as he felt all of her. He could feel her trying to breath and he watched her face as she felt him move inside of her.

"Esa, oh Esa." She was whispering lightly as she kissed his neck and shoulders. He groaned out as she shifted and began bringing her hips to meet his thrusts "Mhmm, Nili. Oh fuck." She was so warm and slick yet she hugged him tight enough to make him see spots as he pressed himself deeper and deeper. "Baby, I love you." He sank his teeth into her shoulder and he delighted in the moan it garnered. He lost track of time as they slowly moved with eachother. He was fighting his own end changing the tempo everytime he felt his climax approaching, he wanted her to feel good for as long as he possibly could.

Feeling him stroking inside of her was driving her wild, she could not think, she could not speak. She could only grip him tight and grind herself into him as her body made unconcious noises to reward him. Her head was spinning and she felt like her whole body was tightening up towards a breaking point. "Esa, Oh my Esa. Please." She did not even know what she was asking of him, she only knew that the wire that was inside of her was about to snap. She felt him stroke her hard one last time before her world exploded and a heatwave rushed from her core outward to every fiber of her. She panted and rode it out while he kept his pace inside of her prolonging the after shocks.

He felt her come hard around him as her muscles squeezed him, yet he would not allow himself to meet his own end. He rocked slowly inside her while she rode out her orgasm but still he kept going. Once she had recovered a bit he pulled out of her and used her hips to flip her on her stomach. He pulled her lower body up and she steadied herself on her hands and knees as he plunged into her from behind. "Esa!" Her voice was a strangled cry as she felt him enter. He struggled to keep his wits as he felt himself able to bury deeper than before.

This was his favorite position, he loved the primal feel of control he had over her as he twirled one hand in her hair and kept the other gripping her hip. He pounded himself over and over against the backs of her thighs as he roved his hand over her pert backside. The view was phenominal, the long line of her back arched up, down to her hips, and the round cheeks he rested his hand on. She was a sex goddess and she didn't even know it as she whined and called out for him. He was working himself into a frenzy as he moved fast and slick inside her. He could feel her muscles tensing again as his own end was near. It was the spasm of her second orgasm that sent him over the edge as he pulled out quickly to spill over her lower back and ass.

She dropped down from her shaky stance and he quickly grabbed up his undershirt to wipe up her back "Sorry," he muttered hoarsly as he cleaned her up, although it was a bit of a sick turn on to see her laid out like with his cum pooling in the dip between her tight little ass and back.

Once he was done he dropped down besides her and pulled her close. "I love you Nili Cohen, I can't wait to have you like this every night for the rest of our lives."

She turned to him and he could see her eyes were still glazed and they even looked a little sleepy. "I love you too Sergeant Esa Donowitz, more than the world."

He rolled onto his back and she knew to move herself to lay on his chest, she loved the comfort she got from feeling their skins up against eachother.

"That was fuckin' phenominal." He said, he was still a bit winded but he was loving the afterglow.

She giggled and buried her face in his chest, he could feel the heat from her cheeks "You're happy now?"

"Of course, that was the best sex of my life, and you just wait another 15 minutes, we'll go again."

She laughed again and swatted his chest. "Was it really the best?" She asked fingering the silver Star of David that hung around his neck.

"Of course, and I'm not just sayin' that. I've never been that into it or felt that good, maybe it was because I haven't fucked anyone in 9 months, or maybe it was because I love you more than life it's self, you be the judge." He was smiling wryly and she rolled her eyes at him before kissing his chin.

"You're still a pig sometimes."

"What? I didn't mean anything by it. There's never going to be anyone else now, just you and me, like this. Forever." He kissed the top of her head and rubbed her back. He was tired but he was determined to make love to her at least twice more before the night was over. He'd only just started with her.

"Who was the last girl you did that with?" She asked perking herself up a little, she knew it was silly but she felt a little dull sting of jealousy.

He sighed and rubbed her back and thought back to a time before he even knew her "She was some British girl I met when we were first deployed over here. I picked her up in a bar and she took me home with her."

She nodded and laid her head back on his chest "Was she pretty?"

He shrugged his shoulders beneath her and cocked his head "She was pretty, but nothin' like you, baby." He ran a thumb over her cheek and down to her lips "I'm not kiddin' when I say you're the most beautiful girl I've ever seen. The boys were floored when they saw you."

"Why? Haven't they seen the pictures I sent you? I thought that was what soldiers did, sit around and talk about girls back home." She traced the little scars on his chest and arms as she talked absently to him

"No, not me. I don't like to share. I like to keep my private life private."

"You're something else Esa Donowitz." She said shaking her head

"Oh really? Tell me what else I am." He said smirking.

With that he flipped her on her back and pushed himself into her again. He was determined to make the most out of their night together.


	9. Nine

She woke the next morning to the sun cracking through the window drapes and a warm body holding her close. She rolled over into the chest of her Sergeant and kissed his neck gently to wake him. He grumbled a little then she saw his eyes blink open as he took her into focus

"Mmm... Good morning beautiful."

"Good morning Esa," She stretched up and kissed his lips as his hands rubbed up and down her naked sides.

"I love you." His voice was still rough from sleep and she could tell he was only still half awake.

"I love you too"

She smiled at him and he rubbed at his eyes yawning and waking fully.

"I knew I'd get you into bed before we got married." His face was plastered with a wide smirk

She pulled the sheet up to cover herself as she swatted him in the chest "You'll never change, now I regret last night." She wasn't serious at all, but she knew he wasn't either.

"I don't, you were a fantastic fuck sweetheart. Being married to you is going to be a freakin' ball."

"So you still want to marry me?" She asked smartly toying with the hair on his chest.

"Of course, I couldn't just have you like that once, or twice, or how many was it baby three or four?" He was incourigable, but he was right. They'd made love at least 3 times the night before.

"Three" She rolled her eyes.

"Nah, I gotta have you like that every night for the rest of my life, and some mornings too." He shifted his eyes and she could see the smirk forming "That's why I gave you this" He picked up the large silver ring he'd given her then let it drop back down to her chest "Speaking of mornings though... How about we make it four?" He grinned and pulled her up so her body was on top of him as his hands began to roam her form.

"Don't you have to go join your men?" She was trying to sound casual but his hands were already teasing her under the sheets.

"No, I'm keeping you here for as long as I can, if they need me they can come pull me off of you." He sat up a little and pulled her up a little further before positioning her over his cock.

"Oh Esa" She moaned out as she sunk herself on to him and they began to rock back and forth.

After they had finished they had laid together for a few moments before getting up and dressing eachother.

"You're beautiful. I love you" His voice was steady and certain as he tied the side of her wrap dress for her. "This war better end soon, I don't think I could stand sleeping away from you now that I know what it's like to sleep with you."

He planted a kiss on her nose before he took her hand and lead her down the stairs to meet up with the other men.

"Well, there's lover boy now. Took you long enough it's nearly 10." Aldo was lazing in the kitchen chair he had been in the night before and the other men were strewn about. Nili was surprised to see Wicki up and sitting in a chair next to Aldo at the table.

"Sorry, Leuitenant." Donny said shrugging, Aldo knew he wasn't going to get anything besides that.

Donny pulled out a chair for Nili and leaned himself on the counter behind her keeping watch over the other men making sure none of them made any move to mention the night before. He knew that even in a whorehouse the walls were thin and he was not a quiet lover.

"Thank you Nurse Cohen, for last night." Wicki said patting her hand on the table, he was a good enough guy and Donny didn't mind him showing her gratitude.

"Yeah, me too Nurse Cohen, thank you for last night." Hirschberg. Donny glared at the boy and he tried hard to fight his urge to get him in a headlock and pummel him.

"You're welcome Wicki." Nili knew what Hirschberg meant and she ignored him although she felt her cheeks flame.

Aldo rolled his eyes and planted his elbows on the table getting into business "Alright boys now our Brit's going to be coming in tonight and we need to go meet him at the drop site. Nurse, we're gonna need you for tonight, Hicox is getting dropped in and Lord knows getting tossed outta a fuckin' plane can leave you with a few bumps and bruises."

Nili nodded and sipped on the coffee Donny had handed her. "Alright Leuitenant, you'll need to wire the head of the hospital first, my leave only lasted until tonight."

"Notta problem at all." He said waving it off "Now boys there's going to be a few kraut patrols out tonight and we need to be on our toes. They're gonna notice a Brit plane and they'll be lookin' for what it dropped."

The men nodded at their Leuitenant.

"When's he supposed to be gettin' dropped?" Donny asked from behind Nili at the counter.

" 'Round 9. We're gunna be movin' out this afternoon and securing the dropsite a lil' earlier though. We need to make a stop into town though and wrestle up some supplies 'fore we do anything, so plan to be ready to roll out in an hour."

Each man nodded and they started to disperse to gather their things and prepare for the mission. Hirschberg and Omar got up to leave, followed by Aldo Utivich Kagan and Wicki; Stiglitz went into the parlor and took out his knife and he began slowly working it over the leather strop he had hooked under his boot.

"So, you'll be staying here today are you okay with that?" Donny asked sitting down next to Nili and pulling his chair close to her. They were the only two left in the kitchen.

"I suppose I don't have any choice" She said shrugging "I obviously can't go out with you."

He shook his head quickly "Of course not, and don't breathe another word of that around Aldo or he'll get another idea. You already know how I feel about this whole situation."

She sighed and shook her head "You act like you don't even want to be around me."

He shot his head up and looked at her deadly serious "You know that's horse shit Nili Cohen. I want to be around you plenty, I just don't want it to put you in danger. I know I can't stop you though."

"That's right, you can't. Now don't you think you should be getting ready for your little outing?" She cocked an eyebrow at him and went to put her coffee cup in the sink.

He shook his head and lead her back up the stairs to the room he'd claimed as his. Nili walked in ahead of him and sat down on the bed as she watched him go into his rucksack and pull out his pistol and his ammunition.

Nili watched him transfixed as he sat down in the plush chair and began cleaning out the barrel and loading the gun. His shoulders were haunched and his eyes were focused as he worked. She wondered at how his large fingers could still be so nimble and she shivered a little thinking of how they'd worked over her last night. She felt her body warm and her cheeks flush as she replayed the night's events in her head.

She hadn't thought she'd make love to him before they were married, saving herself was something she'd believed in quite firmly. But seeing that man with a bullet in his stomach and knowing it could have been him... That was enough to make her see that it was foolish to hold back when he could be gone in a moment. At least if something were to happen now she would know what it was like to have loved him fully, every part of him.

"You thinkin' about me sweetheart?" His voice was cocky as she noticed that he was looking up from his gun and across to her laying on the bed.

She smiled and turned on her side to face him "Maybe..." She liked when he called her sweetheart it always sounded so gruff in his thick accent, the "R" in heart disappearing into the sound of the "A"... "Sweethaaaht"

"I think you musta been seeing that smile on your face..." He set down his gun and made his way over to the bed climbing on top of her slowly.

She giggled a little as he tickled his way up her thighs and her ribs.

"Esa, you have a mission to get ready for."

He sighed and kissed her nose before he climbed off of her. "You're right baby. A man's gotta work, but if I didn't... You better thank your lucky stars little girl." He winked at her as he finished loading his gun. He placed it in the holster he'd strapped to his waist and the he dug into his rucksack again, this time pulling out the worn Louisville Slugger.

Nili's breath hitched a little as she watched him run his hand over the wood.

"So that's it?" She asked in a quiet voice.

"Yup." He said just as quiet, he couldn't read the look on her face, but he hoped she wasn't frightened.

She rose from the bed and walked over to him. She watched as he ran his hands over the worn wood. The bat was different from the last time she had seen it. The wood was darker and it appeared to be stained with something.

Blood. Her mind immediately flashed and saw the bat in his strong hands stained with fresh blood. The blood of those who threw bombs into Jewish shule's, the blood of those who rounded up women and children and shot them in the street. The blood of those who starved and murdered and tortured countless innocents. She felt her body become hot and she felt a streak of adrenaline hit her as she reached out and ran a finger across the bat.

He watched her closely and saw as she traced her own name, the only one he'd carved deep into the wood, the one he wanted to remember most.

"You're going to use this tonight?" Her voice was waivering with some emotion Donny couldn't place his finger on. She looked up and met his eyes and he could see the fire burning there. The same fire he knew smoldered in his own eyes everytime he took a swing at a Nazi skull.

"Yes." He said, his voice was husky with lust at seeing her so incited. He never thought she'd react this way to seeing his bat.

"You make them suffer, Esa Donowitz, you make them pay." Her voice was strong now and he could hear the thrist for revenge behind it. Her face was stern and her eyes were so bright. It was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen. He dropped his bat and grabbed her up and kissed her hard holding her firmly to him. She ran her hands up to his neck and she gripped hard into his hair and she moaned a little as he pushed his tongue into her mouth and dominated her there. He was the epitome of a man for her now, strong and ruthless, holding her tight and kissing her roughly.

He pulled away sharply after a moment and laid his head against her shoulder. "I've got to go now."

She nodded and picked up his bat for him, handing it to him and nodding solemnly. He nodded back at her and took it placing it in the long holster he kept around his leg. He kissed her again and took her chin in his hand.

"I love you." He said in a voice that made her know it was the absolute truth.

"I love you too, stay safe." She leaned in and kissed him back and then he let her go and walked out of the room.

She knew not to follow and she listened through the floor as she heard the thunk of the heavy boots as they filed outside.

She took in a shaky breath then she decided to take a shower and clear her mind in the thick steam.

She walked out of the room and meandered down the hallway wondering which door was the bathroom. As she walked by one of the doors it opened revealing one of Marie's girls Nili had seen earlier sitting with Wicki.

"Oh, hello Cherie, can I help you find something?"

Nili was nervous and tried not to look at her scandelous lingerie outfit. "Uhm... Yes I was looking for the bathroom to shower."

The girl laughed and patted Nili on the shoulder "You must not be nervous of us cherie, we are all women here just like you."

Nili's cheeks flamed at having been caught on prejudice "I'm sorry."

"It is all okay, you are the Bear Jew's woman, no? He is very faithful to you, he refused the advance of even our loveliest girls. He is a good man and you must be a good woman to have him. I think we could become friends, you and I..."

She laughed a pretty little laugh and Nili finally looked into her face, she was a very pretty girl with copper red hair that fell in a stylish waved bob. Her eyes were dark blue and her lips were almost too large for her small face. The part Nili liked most about her was how large and sweet her smile was, and how kind her eyes were. She took Nili's hand in hers and began to tug her down the hall.

"I am so silly, I talk far too much. Wilhelm tells me this all the time, but I am just excitable, that is the correct word, no? Ah pish posh! I am most rude, I did not even tell you my name yet hear I am tugging you down the hall like we are little girls, I am Adele. That is my real name, at least, and since we are both women I feel as though that is what you should call me, the men know me as Evangeline. Silly those men are, they are so attracted to the exotic, no?"

Nili couldn't help but giggle at the fast talking working girl and she thought of how much she reminded her of her childhood girlfriend Samantha. Truth be told Nili was a little starved for female companionship. The nurses here in France were all older and most were sad little widows who were not apt to conversation.

"Your name is Nili, correct, that is a pretty name. I eavesdropped on your man a little, I hope you will forgive me." She stopped short in front of the last door on the left and let go of Nili's hand gesturing towards the door. "Here is the bathroom, there are soaps and towels inside that you are most welcome to. Once you are done come and see me, I have a dress that you may borrow" She picked up the hem of Nili's dress and tutted at her "This one will not do, it is covered in my poor Wilhelm's blood. It is the least I can do to give my new friend something proper to wear."

Nili was winded just from listening to her, but Adele's eyes were so kind and in them Nili could see the same hints of lonliness she felt.

"Thank you so much Adele, you are so kind. I will come to see you as soon as I'm done."

The other girl's face lit up and she laughed again smiling wider than Nili thought possible

"Oh lovely! I will put on a pot of tea as well and we can sit and become girlfriends!"

Nili entered the bathroom and found the small space very clean and bright with soft yellow walls and a large window covered with gauzy white drapes. She smiled to herself and began undressing as she turned on the facuet and let the water run to hot.

Donny stood watching leaned up against the side of the small market as Hirschberg and Wicki and were inside making their purchases. He smoked a ciggarette and made sure not to make eye contact with the rest of the men as they mingled about in the crowds of the small town.

He saw Wicki and Hirschberg step out with large grain sacks that Donny knew held more than just grain. The market owner worked closely with the Basterds to smuggle them in ammunition. Donny stayed up against the wall as they loaded it into the truck and drove off towards the outskirts of town. He watched as Aldo and Utivich walked away from the fruit cart they'd been browsing and he saw the slight almost indescernable nod of Aldo's head.

He stubbed out his ciggarette and shoved his hands into the pockets of his leather jacket as he slowly followed behind them. Under his jacket he felt the familiar lump of his pistol and he smiled a little under the thick wool cap he wore.


	10. Ten

She felt refreshed as she stepped out of the bathroom in only her towel. It was the middle of the day and she doubted there would be any... clients, in the house at this hour. However she still moved quickly down the hallway to the room she had seen Adele come out of. She knocked cautiously and called as she did "Adele... It's Nili..."

The door opened up quickly and Adele ushered Nili in smiling and laughing a little. "Oh look at you Cherie! Here come in quickly..." She had dressed herself in a simple blue floral dress that buttoned down the front and she looked like any girl Nili could have seen on the streets of Clichy.

"Here, here, I have set out this dress for you, it will love so lovely with your skin and hair." Nili looked on the bed and saw a bright green dress that had a deep v and three quarter sleeve. The neckline was a little lower than Nili was used to, but she thought the dress was very pretty indeed.

"Thank you so much Adele, you are too too kind."

Adele laughed and turned her back to Nili "Go on and change, Cherie. Our tea will be done soon."

Nili took her advice and quickly dressed herself. Adele turned around once she was done and smiled at her.

Nili smiled back at her and decided she could like Adele very much. "Shall we? I could use a good cup of hot tea."

"Oh but of course!" Adele took up her hand again and began tittering on in her melodic voice as she lead Nili downstairs.

Donny could hear them from his post just below in the ditch. They were laughing and carousing with eachother as they walked their patrol. He stole a look at Wicki and could see he was straining to make out what they were saying.

He looked over to his left to see Aldo and he watched closely for the signal. Aldo smirked and Donny could see the light in his eyes. He flicked his fingers towards the road and Donny smirked wickedly before he whipped his gun up at the road and opened fire.

"So you have been with the Bear Jew, correct? I heard some of the men giggling about your love sounds this morning." Adele and Nili were curled up on the couch in the parlor and sipping their third cup of tea. They had been gabbing for the past 3 hours and Nili decided she liked her very much, their talk had only recently shifted to her relationship with Donny.

Nili blushed deeply "Uhm, yes. Only just last night though." Nili was embarassed but she knew it must just be routine for Adele to speak so freely about sex.

Adele's mouth opened in a little 'o' and she giggled again "Oh my goodness Cherie, he was your first?"

Nili turned redder than she though possible and she cleared her throat and giggled a little with her "Yes, he was."

Adele laughed a loud and took Nili's hand in hers "Oh to have such a thing, I wish I could have such fond memories of my first encounter with a man." Her eyes softened a little and Nili knew she must have had a hard road that lead her to where she was.

"How are things with you and Wicki, you seem very fond of him..." Nili tried to change the subject and warm her friend's spirits

Her face brightened Nili smiled to see joy back on her face. "Oh my Wilhelm, he is a good man he seems very fond of me. He tells me he cares terribly for me."

"He seems like a good man, I like him very much and so does Donny."

Adele smiled wistfully and patted Nili's hand "You love your Donny very much, I can see it, tell me, what kind of lover is he?. The girls here, we have wondered very much."

Nili laughed a little nervously but truth be told Nili was curious about sex. Her experience last night had been her only encounter with it. Her mother had explained the basics to her and told her only to wait until marriage. But she knew nothing about the intricacies of making love or any of the other things she knew went along with it.

"He is a very good lover, although I admit I know next to nothing about how to please a man."

Adele squealed a little and her eyes lit up "Oh Cherie to please a man is the easiest thing in the world, come I will help you learn. You forget you are in a house full of professionals."

Donny stood smiling over the body of the Nazi private wiping away a bit of him that had ended up splattered across his forearm.

"Wh'udder you boys doin' out here?" Aldo asked pacing in front of the young man who tremlbed on his knees.

"Vee vere just on patrol, nothing more. I assure you Sir." His voice shook and he eyed the huge man with the bat in a way that made Donny smirk like a jackal.

"You don't know anything about a fuckin' plane comin' in. No intelligence, nothing you were 'sposed to be lookin' fer?" Aldo stopped short in front of him and grabbed the boy's chin hard

"No Sir. Ve are not officers, just privates on patrol, we know nothing." Donny saw the tears start to slip out of the boys eyes and a rage filled him. How dare this boy cry in front of him? How dare he try to evoke anything in them with his tears. Donny could bet this little fuck had seen plenty of little Jewish women and children cry in front of him right before he put a fuckin' bullet in their skull.

"Well thank you very much Private, but I'm afraid we won't be needin' you now. Donny, have at 'im." Aldo stood up briskly and waved his hand as he turned towards the other men.

He'd given them what they asked for, but he couldn't be left alive. They couldn't leave any survivors tonight no one could know they were here for a rendevous.

Donny took a hard swing and just like that, the crying stopped.

Aldo signalled to the other men while Donny finished up. They'd seen the plane fly over head a few moments ago and they knew that their man had dropped.

"Alright boys, spread out and keep your eyes and ears open, Hicox is around here somewhere and we've gotta find him 'fore a kraut does."

"So that is all you have to do?" Nili asked giggling as she looked at the experienced woman across from her.

"But of course Cherie, I told you men were most easy to please, all you need is a firm hand and a deep throat."

At that both girls burst out laughing and fell into eachother clutching their sides until tears came down their faces. They were just catching their breath when they heard the brothel door burst open and many pairs of heavy footfalls.

Nili perked up and she heard Aldo Raine's rough voice call out from the entryway. "Nurse, can you get in here, we need you to check out our boy. Think he might need some stitchin' "

Nili leapt up and Adele followed her as they moved quickly to the foyer where they saw the Basterds crowded around a dapper looking man in a military uniform with a nasty looking gash on his hairline and blood seeping through the leg of his pants.

"Hello darling, I suppose you're the Nurse they were calling for. I assure you I'm fine for the most part, just a few little scrapes." He flashed her an easy smile and gave her a look of clear interest. "I'm Leuitenant Archie Hicox by the by, I'm charmed to meet you." He offered out his hand and Nili placed hers in it and he quickly raised it to his lips to kiss it.

"I'm Nili Cohen." She looked quickly to Donny and saw the incensed look on his face, she quickly pulled her hand away from the dashing Brit.

"If you'll just let the men help you into the kitchen I can work on tending to your wounds." Nili nodded to Utivich and Stiglitz who held his shoudlers and they both helped him into the kitchen. Nili stayed behind a step and waited for Donny who grabbed her up possessively and placed a hard kiss on the top of her head without a word.

After he let her go she moved quickly to the kitchen where she'd laid out her kit, Adele was boiling more water and she had a lit candle set out for Nili already.

"Alright, Leuitenant Hicox, if you'll just roll up your pantleg I'd like to just swab out the wound there." Nili felt a little self concious with all the Basterds watching her. She'd barely noticed they attention the other night, but last night there was a possibility of Wicki actually dying and she had thrown herself into helping him. Now it was like she was putting on a little song and dance for them, and the way the Brit was looking at her was making her a bit uncomfortable.

"Of course love, anything you ask." He smiled a lopsided grin at her and he reached down to roll up his pantleg, the wound there was superficial, not deep enough to stitch, but still very nasty to look at. Nili swabbed it out easily and bandaged it quickly.

"Fantastic, darling" He said once she had finished there "Now I fear this one up here on my egg will be a little more troublesome for you and for that I am deeply sorry." He was trying very hard to charm her and she could see Donny trying to keep himself in line.

"It's nothing Leuitenant, I've seen much, much worse, this will be child's play." She was trying to be curt with him, but she also could not abide being rude to him either.

"I'm sure it will, you seem to be a very accomplished very intelligent woman, love."

Before Nili could say anything she heard Donny's hard voice from the corner of the kitchen "She is."

He obviously missed the tone of Donny's voice as he didn't even bother to look at him, he kept his eyes focused on Nili as she tried to avoid his gaze and clean his wound before stitching it. "Oh of course chap, she's as gentle handed as she is lovely."

Donny was not fuckin' happy with this Hicox character. He was openly trying to pick up his girl right in fuckin' front of him and he was fighting the urge to wring his scrawny neck here and now. He could sense that Nili was uncomfortable with his advances and that was only adding fuel to his fire. He felt a boot kick against his and he looked over to see Aldo next to him giving him a sharp look that clearly conveyed "Cool it." Donny grunted and obeyed his C.O. Taking a deep breath and trying to hold back his anger.

Nili watched as Hicox winced as the needle sunk into the first stitch "Am I hurting you Leuitenant?"

"Oh this old skin can take it, love. Don't worry your pretty little head about me." His tone was cavalier and Nili wondered if he was going to take the hint that she was not interested or just keep on digging his grave. "I assure you love, if I had known American nurses were so striking I'd have injured myself a little earlier."

Nili laughed nervously and peeked over at Donny who was staring at the ground and clenching his fists tight. The rest of the men had bemused smirks on and they all seemed to be enjoying the awkward interaction. "Well, thank you Leuitenant." She had no idea what else to say.

"No need to thank me darling, I'm only stating the truth. I'll have you know before the war I was a movie critic in Britain, and I've seen some very lovely women in my day. You my dear, surpass them all. Have you ever thought of making a bid for the pictures?"

"No, no, I haven't. I always wanted to be a nurse."

He almost nodded but caught himself as she stitched him "Ahaa, not only is the lady lovely but she also has a good head on her shoulders, tell me did I perish when I fell from that plane, because I am almost sure you are an angel." He was getting ahead of himself and Nili was not fond of it.

"Leuitenant, you are becoming a little forward with me."

"Oh my, I appoligize my lady. I meant no intrusion, are you a married woman?" His voice was still silk smooth and cavalier, as if he were only expecting her to be overcome with her enchantment with him.

"No Leuitenant I am not married..."

He cut her off quickly "Ah well then there is still hope that a poor sap like me may take you out sometime."

"No, there's fuckin' not because she's engaged." Donny simply could not hold it in anymore, he was seconds away from launching himself on this skinny little man and beating him until he couldn't tell his ass from his elbow.

Hicox turned sharply to Donny and his smirk returned "I don't see a ring on her finger..."

Donny moved to take a step forward but Nili quickly interviened "I'm sorry Leuitenant but I am engaged and Sergeant Donowitz is my fiance."

Donny felt his anger dip just a little but he still wanted to wipe that smirk of the little fucker's face.

"Well then, I find myself already making enemies. I appoligize for being forward, but you must be used to enchanting men. I will not take back saying that you are a beautiful woman. Tell me though Nurse, what can one prescribe for a bad case of the Green Eyed Monster?"

Nili just cleared her throat and sent a pleading look to Donny, begging him not to act on his rage. "I'd prescribe looking elsewhere Leuitenant."

He kept quiet while she finished up with him and as soon as she was done Aldo called a meeting with Stiglitz, Hicox and Wicki to discuss their operation, and Nili suspected, to get Hicox out of harm's way. The other Basterds and Adele filtered out of the kitchen on cue knowing Donny and his woman needed a moment.

Nili moved cautiously towards the corner where Donny was sitting examining his hands intently. She reached out gingerly and took his clenched fists in her hands and she was relieved to feel him ease up under her touch.

"I'm sorry" she said quietly as she moved his arms around her waist and then wrapped hers around his neck. He let out a deep rush of air and finally looked up to meet her eyes.

"I just can't stand that fucker. Who does he think he fuckin' is comin' on to you like that. That's not how you treat a lady."

Nili lost it then. She burst out laughing and she kept on until she cried tears of mirth and her sides ached.

"What?" Donny asked agitated, she couldn't reply though and he asked again "What?" She kept on with her giggles and tried to catch her breath until he angrily dropped his arms from her waist and stepped away "What's so fuckin' funny?"

Her face fell when he dropped her and she wiped her eyes and looked up at him "Don't you remember how you first talked to me Esa Donowitz? Exactly the same way."

"Yeah, well are you gonna take up with him now?"

Nili put her hands on her hips and stared him down "You're being childish."

"No I'm fuckin not." He said crossing his arms and meeting her angy gaze "Why didn't you tell him you were taken after the first come on?"

She was exasperated with him now "Oh I was trying to be polite, don't be silly. I told him didn't I?"

"No, I did. You just fuckin' sat there and let him try to use his shit British accent to get you into bed."

She was hurt that he would even speak that way to her, her eyes began to fill but she looked down and blinked them away quickly "I can't believe you'd say that to me. Listen to yourself."

"I was listening, are you embarassed of me? Is that what it is? You won't admit to being with me cause I'm just some big fuckin' stupid lug?"

"No! Not at all, what is wrong with you?"

"Just cause I don't talk as nice as him"

Nili was beyond angry with him "Sergeant I don't know why you're talking to me like this, but you know I love you"

"Just cause you fucked me?"

The retort Nili had poised on her tongue died right as those words left his mouth and she could not blink back the tears anymore. Her face flamed with embarrassment and she quickly reached down and ripped off the silver chain dropping it to the floor and flying passed a stunned Hirschberg and Omar as she ran up the stairs.

Donny angrily kicked the ring with his boot as he slammed his fist into the countertop. He felt the impact in his hand and he knew he'd broken at least one knuckle if not more. He swore loudly and walked out of the back door slamming it behind him.


	11. Eleven

"Utivich!" Omar yelled to the door to the small study where the Little Man was writing in his journal "You better go check on Donny's nurse."

Smithson quickly scrambled up from the entryway to the study where Aldo had placed him to ward off Donny flying in and killing Hicox. He jogged into the parlor where Omar and Hirschberg sat "What happened to her?" He asked his eyes filled with worry.

"Donny just fuckin' chewed her out, he's in one of his moods and he yelled at her. She ran past us and it looked like she was crying." Omar explained

Hirschberg nodded verifying the story and he mumbled to himself under his breath "He's a fuckin' idiot sometimes... She's way too sexy to yell at..."

Utivich felt himself get hot with anger at Donny, he had no right to speak to her like that, she was already too good for him anyways. He took in the story then started up the stairs to go find Nili.

Nili dropped on the bed and tried to wipe the tears away with quick swipes of her hands. She wasn't going to cry over his temper. She wasn't that kind of girl. She head a soft knock on the door and she knew it was too light to be him so she bid the person enter quietly "Come in..."

The door opened and Smithson walked in his eyes concerned as he plopped himself next to her on the bed. "You okay Nil?" Smith had taken up calling her Abe's pet name when they were kids and she didn't mind him using it, it felt like home.

"I'm fine, he's just a big jealous idiot..." She said sniffling and wiping at her nose. She felt very unladylike but Smith had seen her playing in mud before, so she wasn't self conscious around him.

"What started it? Hicox?" He asked rubbing her back lightly before reaching around and pulling her head down into his shoulder. She settled herself there and then took in a shaky breath finally calming herself.

"Yes, he blew up and said I was embarrassed to admit our relationship. He got so self deprecating and had a fit at me. I don't know why he would think I was embarrassed of him. I love him so, Smithy. He was just being ignorant."

Smithson took a deep breath, he knew he couldn't tell Nili what Hicox had told them all earlier, that was Donny's right. "He's got a lot on his plate Nil. Donny's not too good with dealing with feelings. Before you came here I was the only one that knew about you. He's very, very protective of you. He loves you too, I think so much that it might even scare him, and Donny Donowitz will never admit to being scared."

Nili nodded and knew Smithson was right, he always had such a good head on his shoulders. Abe had been smart and athletic, Smithson was used to living in the shadow of his best friend, he'd been happy there; but truth was he was brighter.

"I know, I know how he works. He has a temper." She said waving her hands while she took comfort in the warmth of Smith's arm around her. It was almost like having Abe back again.

"I know he has a temper but he has no damn right to take it out on you, the one person who cares about him most of all. I'll go have a talk with him and sort him out."

She sat up quickly and shook her head "Oh no, no. Don't do that Smith, he's in such a mood. He'll come back to me in a few hours and I'll chew him out enough, you don't have to step in."

Smithson stood up and pushed his shoulders back "Abe wouldn't allow anyone to speak to you like that. I won't either, he told me to take care of you and Rosie and I'm going to damn well do it."

"No, please Smith. Just let him be, I'll sort him out."

Smithson looked down and sighed, he had to admit that she was right. If they were going to be married they'd have to sort through their problems themselves. "Alright, Nil. I suppose you're right, but I'm not happy with him at all. No one treats my girl like that." He kissed her forehead chastely and got up leaving her alone in the room.

Donny kicked at the ground outside sending a spray of gravel up around him. He ran his hands through his hair and grunted in fury. He was mad at Hicox, mad at himself and how he'd acted, mad at this whole fucking war and how it was destined to all turn out.

He wasn't mad at her though, no at all. He felt so horribly that he'd exploded at her. His hand ached and he looked down to see his knuckles oozing thick red blood. He kicked at the ground once more and steadied his breathing before going back inside.

He entered the kitchen and he saw Utivich standing leaning against the counter holding the silver necklace in his hand. Donny eyed him and moved over to the sink where he began to wash his hand wincing as the soap stung the wound. He was not ready to speak to anyone about his actions, let alone the Little Man who thought himself a big brother.

"What the fuck do you think you were doing?" Smithson's voice was hard as he rubbed over the ring.

Donny turned to him wrapping a rag around his hand and he gave him a hard look. He didn't answer him though, he just leaned back on the countertop himself.

"I asked you a question Donny, who do you think you are to talk to her like that? She loves you, you ignorant asshole. I can't see why but she does."

Donny felt his rage bubbling again, he was not used to dealing with so much and he was angry at his inability to reconcile himself with it. "I don't know. I was wrong. I know I fucked it up with her, I know. She threw down my ring and I ran off."

Donny sighed and ran his uninjured hand through his hair. He didn't know if he could face her now, not after he'd said that to her. He was scared she would scorn him.

Utivich shook his head and toyed more with the ring "You're a real idiot if you think her little huff means she won't marry you. She was just spouting off as much as you were. She loves you, she'll marry you. You just have to go apologize, that's all she wants; for you to admit you were wrong."

Utivich reached out the ring and dropped it into Donny's hand "Go up there and be a man and tell her you were wrong."

Donny looked down at the old ring, it was dull and tarnished. Not nearly what she deserved. He felt the sting of Hicox's comment, he couldn't even put a ring on her finger.

"Maybe she's better off without me Utivich. I'm as good as a dead man."

Utivich shook his head "No, you're the only man she loves. Don't be stupid. You go up there and you apologize and let her take you back. You never know how this war will turn out, but don't you deny her the right to love you. She won't take anyone else."

Donny sighed and gripped the old silver ring digging it into his palm. He nodded at Utivich and took off towards the stairs.

He rapt the door with his good hand and waited for her to tell him to come in. He did not hear her voice, yet he heard her stirring with in the room. "Nili, baby, let me in. Please?"

He heard her come to the door, yet she still did not open it, he sighed again and leaned his face on the door "Please sweetheart, I'm sorry. Just let me in so I can talk to you."

He heard the click of the lock and then he stepped back as the door opened. She was standing there with her handkerchief in her hand and the ghosts of tears in her eyes.

"Come in then."

He stepped in and he felt a nervousness he was not used to where she was concerned "Nili, I'm so sorry sweetheart. I was an idiot for blowin' up at you, I just..." He ran a hand through his hair again, it calmed him a little "I need you so much." He went to her and took her hand trying to find the right words to express his grief "I'm not used to this, I'm still learnin'." He loosened his grip on the necklace and held it out to her "Please?"

She just nodded and grabbed him 'round the waist holding him close and letting him slide the necklace over her head and put his arms around her. He kissed her head and her face, thankful that he had been forgiven.

"You'll never speak to me like that again." She said pulling him away laughing a little. "Or else next time I won't be this forgiving. I love you so Esa, always remember that. There will never be anyone else. Not now, not ever."

"Of course not baby, you're my heart. I won't ever hurt you again." He went to take her chin in his injured hand but winced when he tried to move it. She took note and grabbed at it quickly

"What've you done now?"

"I was stupid. I picked a fight with the kitchen counter when I should have picked a fight with my own fuckin' head." He unwrapped the cloth around his hand and let her see the mangled knuckles.

"Good God, am I going to spend the rest of our lives together patching you up?"

He shrugged and smiled "Probably, good thing you're a nurse then, huh?"

She smiled and set to work bandaging him up with her medical kit and she kissed his hand once she was done.

"I love you so much." He whispered as he rubbed her cheek, she flushed and smiled back kissing him and perching herself on his lap. "I love you too, sweetheart."

He woke the next morning with her bare chest draped across him. He looked down at her and smiled seeing her sleeping soundly with a smile. She stirred a little and he watched her eyes flutter open.

"Good morning."

"Hey gorgeous."

She kissed him sweetly and writhed a little on top of him, feeling him grow hard beneath her. "Mmm, someone's having a good morning."

He smirked and kissed her deeper "Come on baby, I just can't help it around you. Especially not wth you lyin' here on top of me naked. I can't get enough of you." He flipped her over and began laying kisses on her neck and collarbone.

She giggled and ran her hands through his hair "Darling, I need to shower and go back to the hospital, I can't stay here forever."

"No, Aldo wired the hospital that you would be here for 3 days, you're here until tomorrow. We're going out again tonight and we may need you here." He ran a hand over her breast and she shivered as her nipple hardened under his touch.

"You men are certainly utilizing my services." She giggled as he ran his thumb over her other breast.

"Oh sweetheart, I'm the only one utilizin' you." He moved his kisses down to her breast and took on of her nipples into his mouth flicking it with his tongue and gently nipping with his teeth.

She gasped and tugged at his hair sending a shock down his spine. "Let me fuck you in the shower" he said against her breast as he laid his kisses there.

She gasped again as he took up with her other breast. "Oh Esa, we couldn't..." He swirled his tongue around her peak.

"We could... I want to baby." He grabbed up her thighs and pressed himself between them "You know you want to..."

She moaned against him and tried to guide him inside of her but he pulled back "Come on baby, it'll be fun... No one else is awake yet, it's barely 6 o'clock." He pressed himself close to her again and heard her gasp "Let me make love to you in the shower."

"Mhmm..." She moaned out nodding her head as she felt him press close to her. His smile grew wide as he rolled off of her and sat up.

"Come on girl, put on your robe." His excitement was apparent as he pulled on his pants and an undershirt. She smiled a little blushing like mad at the idea of making love to him in such a risque place. She walked the short distance to the chair where her robe lay and she pulled it on. When she turned back she saw that he had been watching her intently.

"You're so fuckin' sexy. I need you." He grabbed her up and kissed her roughly, his need for her very apparent. He kneaded her breast through the silk of her robe and pressed himself against her. "You better run down that hallway." He let go of her and opened the door smacking her butt to send her down the hall. He followed closely behind her keeping his hands on her hips.

He was right, the hall was quiet and not a soul was stirring. She worked hard to keep from laughing as he maneuvered her down to the bathroom. They entered quickly and he locked the door behind him as she turned the faucet.

He whipped himself around and grabbed her up untying her robe and exposing her body to him. She undid his belt and let his pants drop then moved to his undershirt making short work of it.

Once they were both nude he picked her up round the waist and carried her into the bath and set her under the warm spray. He roved her form with his hands as the water engulfed them. She moaned as he teased her, the warmth of the water adding to the feelings of his touches. She moved her hand down to his cock and rubbed him up and down letting the water lubricate her motions. He groaned out and grabbed her by her thighs lifting her up to allow himself to slide into her.

He pinned her between the wall and his body as he pumped into her. He wanted his tempo slow and warm as the water that trailed over them.

Hicox rose early, he had always been prone to it. He rubbed the sleep from his eyes as he moved from the large bed. He'd never been one for whorehouses, but it was a treat to have a bed aside from a cot.

He pulled on a pair of civilian trousers he had been provided and moved for the door of the room, he fancied a shower and he figured at this hour no one else would be awake to commandeer it.

As he stepped out of the room he looked across the hall to the room he knew the Nurse was staying in. He grimaced thinking that the large oaf was probably in there with her. He'd certainly gotten an earful last night from almost every direction, but he thought he'd recognized the slight airy noises of her voice through the moans and grunts of the other men and their whores.

He felt himself bubble with jealousy. She was so delicate and lovely, something that should be kept in a gilded cage. Not something to handle with large rough hands. He shook himself as he moved down the hall to the bathroom. He reached the door and stopped just short of it when he heard a grunt from the other side of the door. He eyed the wood and moved a step closer listening hard.

He could heard muffled slaps of skin on skin and stifled moans. He was about to turn around when he heard a low grunt of a name "Nili..."

He could not bear the envy. That big ogre was in there making love to the little nurse that had struck him so. He moved on impulse grabbing the door knob roughly and pushing it hard hearing the feeble old lock give way underneath his momentum. He pushed the door wide and the sight that met his eyes made him seethe.

He watched as they made love up against the wall of the bath. They were sideways to him and he could see the glory of her body as he pinned her to the wall with his big vulgar frame. Her eyes were closed in ecstasy as he pumped into her. It was she that Hicox was focused on. His eyes took in the lines of her body, her flat stomach and her full breasts. It took them only a half a second to realize he was there and she gasped loudly moving feebly to cover her exposed breasts.

Donny's eyes shone with fury "Get the fuck out!"

Hicox played the part of the sorry intruder well and he closed the door quickly behind him as he exited the bathroom, not before sneaking one last peak at her and giving him a well hidden smirk.

Nili was bright red as Donny held her up against the wall of the bathroom. He was still buried deep inside of her. He could kill Hicox, why on earth would he force open the door when it was clearly locked. He must have been eavesdropping and decided to sneak a peak at his woman. He growled in anger and dropped his head into her chest which she still covered in a vain show of modesty.

"Let me down Esa," She said shakily as she ran her hands through his wet hair.

He raised his head up and shook it furiously, "No, no, come on baby, let's finish." He rolled his hips into her and pumped himself back in.

She gasped and arched against him "Esa, we can't..."

He pumped into her again "He's already gone, let me make love to you." He rolled his hips into her roughly and kept pace as she nodded and ground against him again.

They were cautious when they exited the bathroom, Donny let her go first out into the hallway and he waited a few moments before following. He found her in their room stil in her towel staring down at the green dress she had been wearing before.

"Sergeant, you left a stain on the dress." She pointed angrily to the side of the dress where there was indeed a large mark, he must have grabbed it up to wipe her off while they made love in the night.

He ran a hand through his hair and tried not to laugh "Sorry sweetheart, I didn't know."

She cocked her head to the side and sighed frustrated "It wasn't even mine. I'll have to wash it for Adele, but now I have nothing to wear."

"I'm perfectly fine with you wearing nothing." He said huskily coming up behind her, she gave him a half smile and a sweet kiss

"I'm not, I'm hungry and I'd like to be able to walk about today and I certainly can't do that nude."

He shrugged and kissed her neck before pulling away. He remembered he'd seen some women's things in the closet earlier and he went to see what he could find for her.

"Here sweetheart, Marie said the girl who used this room is gone, we could find you something." He opened the closet and saw all manner of slinky lingerie and only a few articles of sutable clothing. He pulled out a brown skirt that looked as though it would be a bit big on his little woman, but it would do, there were no appropriate blouses to be found though. "Here, I found this and I have a spare shirt you could borrow, it'll be huge on you but you can belt it"

She eyed the clothes a little disgruntled, but it was all she had aside from the badly stained dress, and she could not face the other men in that, they would know exactly what it was. She sighed and pulled on the clothes hastily as Donny dressed himself across the room. When he turned around he had to stifle a laugh, she looked a little ridiculous in his huge airmen's shirt. She'd tucked it into the brown skirt and she had pulled a leather belt around the waist to keep it on.

She looked up to see him working not to laugh at the sight of her. She sighed and shrugged as he wrapped her in his arms and he laid kisses on her nose and forehead. "You still look beautiful."

She smiled and rubbed his arms before they parted. Her heart warmed and her teeth shown bright as she looked into the honest eyes of the man she loved.

He chuckled a little and grinned mischievously as he pulled the shirt aside and he buried his face in her chest kissing her there before she pushed his head away laughing with him.

"Come on, let me make you some breakfast." She grabbed his hand and lead him downstairs to the little quiet kitchen.

Donny sat down at the table and watched as she went into the ice box to get eggs. She bustled about the old stove and he sat by at the table and watched her intently. She was unaware of him as she was focused on her task at hand cracking the eggs and chopping vegetables and cheese to add to them.

She hummed an old tune he remembered from somewhere he couldn't place as she stood in front of the stove. He smiled and watched sipping the coffee she had set out for him.

For a moment he wasn't sitting in a whorehouse kitchen in France, he was home with her in their own little place, soon he would leave to go to work, but he'd be back to her before dinner and they'd make love all night.

"Baby, you ever think about after the war?" He asked after a moment.

"Hmm?" She was pulled from her tune and she turned a little to glance at him from the stove "Sometimes." She answered quietly

"Do ever think about what you'll do if I don't come back?" He didn't know why he said it. It just came out without any sort of censor or control.

Her back went rigid and she turned to him sharply "What do you mean by that?" She asked her voice rising an octave

"I mean, I've been meaning to say to you..." His mind was working furiously, trying to figure a way to word what he knew he needed to tell her

"What have you been meaning to say to me?" She was standing in front of him now wringing her hands

He breathed hard and took her hands and pulled her on to his lap "I just, I need to tell you, if anything happens to me..." He sighed and kissed her clenched fists "I don't want you to do anything stupid. I don't want you to ruin your life."

"Sergeant, don't talk like that." She said her eyes filling "I can't bear it."

"Nilli sweetheart," He said pulling her into his chest "I just want you to be happy is all. I swore I'd come back to you, but if I don't I need you to promise me you'll be happy. Can you just do that?"

She sniffled and got off of his lap abruptly "My omelets are burning." She said stiffly as she went back to the stove. He saw her wiping furiously at her eyes and he felt like the biggest dunce there ever was. He had ruined their perfect little moment. But he had needed to tell her that. He needed her to know.

He sighed and stood up and put his arms around her from behind. He kissed her neck gently and took in a long breath of her. "I'm sorry to have said that. I love you."

She sighed and put down her spatula and held his hands against her "I know, I just can't think about it. I can't think about losing you. Please, just let's have these few days."

He nodded against her neck and she turned to meet his lips. He let her go and sat back down as she scooped the omelet out of the pan and onto the two plates she had set out.

They'd only just started eating when the heavy trods of tired boots began to rattle the ceiling. The men began to file down one by one.

"Morning Don... Missus." Aldo rasped out his eyes were slit and he looked older than he had the night before.

"Lieutenant." Donny nodded to him and pulled Nili's chair closer to his as the other Basterds began to sit around the table. Nili nodded to them all and smiled as each took a seat. Kagan. Smith. Omar... Just the thought struck her that Hicox would no doubt be joining them.

The thought had barely taken root when he filed in behind Hirschberg, a slight grin on his face that seemed a little dark.

"Good Morning chaps, and the lady of course." He said tossing around a nod and then a clandestine wink towards Nili. Donny caught the look and his fists balled into white knuckled boulders.

"Mornin' Hicox." Aldo said gruffly as he poured out a mug of coffee and gestured to the seat next to him. Hicox sat down with a cat's smile and placed himself directly across from Donny and Nili at the table. "How you like havin' a bed to sleep in 'stead the ground. Preddy damn nice ain't it?" Aldo asked trying to spark up conversation, for once his perceptive nature did not pick up on the air of tension hanging thick as a wool blanket.

"I dare say the bed was indeed quite nice, but I enjoyed a hot shower more. The bathroom window has the loveliest view I've ever seen." He made sure to make his eyes smolder as he dared his comment and then he casually began adding cream and sugar to his coffee.

"Huh, I reckon I've never really cared to check out the view." Aldo said finally looking up from his coffee and newspaper, he didn't read a lick of French, but he coud figure what he needed to know about the occupation from the pictures.

"Oh you should chance a look Lieutenant, I assure you it's fantastic."

Nili was holding one of Donny's large hands fast but she could feel him vibrating with rage. She herself was a little insulted but she knew she had to try to keep him in check.

"You better shut your fuckin' mouth." Donny said deadly quiet.

Hicox looked up unaffected and cocked an eyebrow "I haven't the foggiest what you're talking about chap, I was only commenting on the view in the shower."

Aldo narrowed his eyes and looked between Donny and Hicox sensing that something was about to blow. "What the fuck are you talkin' on about Donowitz, don't start this shit again. You two've had yer words now be done widdit."

Donny didn't speak again, just dug into his omelet with a force that near cracked the plate.

"Easy sweetheart." Nili whispered quietly rubbing her thumb soothingly over the back of one of his massive hands.

Hicox watched her run her delicate porcelain fingers over his large calloused hands. She dipped her head to speak quietly to him and her perfect onyx spirals shook as her head moved.

He wanted to wrap those long curls about his hands and run his lips along that marble smooth neckline. He let his mind wander to the image of her naked in the shower. He tried to remove the ogre from his mental image and implant himself holding her against the wall of the shower. He tried to imagine himself running his hands along her perfect breasts and making her whinny out his name as she came.

He tried to get ahold of himself as he felt a stirring in his trousers and he focused again on her face. As he studied her he heard a rough clearing of a throat and he looked up to see the bear staring at him with a vicious look in his eye.

"Now the mission for tonight is to secure the Nadine Road. We gotta see what kinda barn dance these fuckers are puttin' on along the way and find an exit strategy for tomorrow night. Lord knows someone's gonna noticed a blown out bar before we'd like 'em to so we gotta have a quick way out and back here." The Leuitenant's drawl pulled the two out of their stare down and brought Hicox out of his lusty fog.

"Alright Lieutenant, whadda say me an' Wicki take Utivich, you take Hirschberg and Kagain and Stiglitz and the Brit make another group and we split to the tri-roads and see which offers the best cover?"

The Bear's rough accent grated at Hicox's nerves, and he had refused to address him by his rank and name, Hicox was an officer, and he wasn't about to let that uneducated bar rat demote him.

"I believe you neglected my name and rank, Sergeant." Hicox's voice was butter smooth and he smiled with only half of his mouth "And by God could you at least speak the King's english when you address your company?"

Donny's spine when straight as a rail and he shot out of his seat pushed far past the point of no return "I'll fuckin' kill you."


	12. Twelve

Stiglitz and Omar were on him grabbing his arms and holding him in place. Nili was holding his shirt and trying to calm him. Hicox was sitting calmly sipping his coffee with the nonchalance of a man taking a leisure brunch.

"Do not make a move Don." Aldo growled from across the table "Outside. Now." Aldo sprang up and walked briskly to the old screened door holding it open as Donny shrugged off Stiglitz and Omar and followed him outside leaving a stunned group of Basterds in his wake.

"You mind explainin' what the fuck that was 'sposed to be?" Aldo fumed turning on the Bear Jew as soon as they'd gotten out of ear shot of those in the kitchen.

"That man is a fuckin' sleaze, Aldo. I don't like the way he looks at my girl and the way he thinks he can talk about her. No one talks about her like that." Donny's voice was low with rage and Aldo knew just how precarious his temper was.

"What the shit are you talkin' about? I saw him put on that show last night but I thought he straightened out. The man was just yawwin' about the fuckin' bathroom this mornin'."

Donny growled and turned away from Aldo and swung his arms out and back into himself "He wasn't talkin' about the fuckin' bathroom. He was talkin' about Nili. He walked in on us in the shower this mornin'. I'm tellin' you, if he lays a hand on her I'll fuckin' gut him like a fish."

Aldo took in what Donny told him and reevaluated his perceptions of the dapper British officer. He decided he really didn't much like him, but there wasn't really anything he could do about it at the current juncture. He just had to focus on keeping Donowitz from killin' him.

"Alright. I get it now. I'm not sayin' he's right, because he sure as shit can't talk about a lady as fine as yours like that. But the thing is, we need 'im, so I can't have you wringin' his soft little neck unless you got a real reason. If he makes any lewd move or lays a hand on her then by the good grace of the Lord you have my blessin' to kill the fucker any way your sick fuckin' mind sees fit. But until he pulls somethin' like that, try to keep it under control, for her sake. She duddn't need to see you go off."

Donny listened to Aldo rattle off the speech he'd already known was coming and instead of listening he mainly focused on trying to steady his breathing and ease the tension out of his muscles.

"Yeah. Alright. She's my main priority Aldo. She's the only thing that keeps me livin' and breathin'. If he touches her, I can't speak for what I'll do."

Aldo came up and laid a hand on Donny's shoulder. The big man had a temper, but damnit if he wasn't one of the better men Aldo'd ever known.

"I know it Don. I know it. Now get back in there and try to act like a fuckin' sensible man" He shoved Don lightly and as he did he felt his rock of a shoulder soften a little. He watched him walk in ahead of him and he let out a quiet long breath knowing he'd avoided disaster for now. He couldn't help but worry what would happen if the Brit was stupid enough to test his luck on the Bear Jew. Aldo really didn't feel like explainin' away a mangled body to the Brit higher ups.

Donny entered back into the kitchen to see most of the men dispersed, Hicox thankfully included. Nili was sitting at the table and she stood up as soon as he walked into the door.

"Donny are you alright? Did you do anything foolish?" She asked grabbing his hands and checking his knuckles for wounds.

"I'm fine baby." he said snaking a hand around the back of her head and pulling her into him to kiss her forehead. "Are you okay? Are you feeling alright? Did he say or do anything once I'd left?" He pulled her away gently and held her at arm's length

She shook her head quickly as her cheeks heated up. She was still mortally embarrassed at the gall of Hicox and she still felt a little dirty at his mention of his seeing her naked. She was telling the truth though, he'd not said another word after Donny's outburst and had only finished his coffee and then stepped out of the kitchen to prepare for the day's mission.

"Good." He said sternly as he pulled her to him again and stroked her hair. She was his. No one else's. She was only for him and he was only for her. He was supposed to protect her from everything and make sure the only things she knew were pleasure and happiness. No one else was supposed to encroach on their little world. "I love you Nili Cohen."

She pulled away gently and ran her hand along the two days worth of stubble roughing his cheek and chin. He closed his eyes and reveled in her soft touch for a moment and she knew he was calm now. "I love you too, Esa. Always."

He stroked her cheek and ran his thumb down to her lips. "I hate leavin' you." He said quietly as his mind wandered to the prospect of tonight's outing.

"As long as you come back it'll all be okay." Her voice was quiet as she laid her cheek on his barrel chest and let out a slow sigh

"I'll always come back to you. Just like I said baby. I'll take you back to Boston with me and we'll get married."

She pulled away and looked up at him, his face was so open and honest. She couldn't help her heart's swell.

"Come on kid. I have to get my things ready for tonight and I have somethin' for you." He gently pulled on her hand and lead her up to their little room.

She laid on the bed as he started to clean out his pistol again. She watched how meticulous he was and how much care he took making sure it shined and any hint of tarnish was banished from the barrel.

"Tell me about Boston Esa." She asked as she turned lazily to him.

He smiled a big crooked smile and looked up at her with a raised eyebrow "You wanna know about your new home sweetheart?"

"I do." She turned on her side and propped herself up on her elbow as she watched him.

"Well, when we first get home we're gonna drive into Boston over the Bunker Hill Bridge and you'll get to see the Charles. That's the river than runs through the city. In the fall we'll go watch the regatta, I used to do that every year with my parents. I'll take you to my parent's house, they live just outside Fanuiel Hall. You'll get to see right where I grew up, I'll take you to the North End for the best Italian dinner of your life. We'll go to every single Red Sox game, we'll get beers together at the bars outside during the seventh inning stretch and come back to see 'em win..."

Her heart warmed hearing him talk so fondly. She wanted nothing more than to live in this little dream he was spinning for her. She could see herself sitting next to him as he yelled excitedly over the sound of the Fenway crowds. She could see them taking strolls on the banks of a river she'd never seen.

"Once I get a little money I'll take you shoppin' on Newbury Street. That's where all the girls always want to go. They have every store you could dream of. In the winter when the Nor'Easters blow in we'll stay tucked up at home all day and stay in bed for hours. You can work at Mass General and I can go back to the shop and I'll walk the few blocks to the hospital and buy you lunch every day. We'll be perfect baby. I'm going to make you the happiest woman on earth, trust me."

She felt full to bursting and she hopped up from the bed and nearly bowled his chair over with the force she used to kiss him.

"You that excited baby?" He asked pulling her into his lap and smiling

She just laughed and smiled and pecked his lips again "Of course sweetheart, it all sounds so perfect."

His face broke into his easy grin and he ran his hands up and down her smooth arms relishing the feel of her on his lap and the sight of her big smile.

"Don! Donowitz! Get down here!" Their contented moment was interrupted by Aldo calling from downstairs.

Donny groaned and moved Nili from his lap as he stood up and got his things together. "Come on girl, put your jacket on." He said tapping her on her pert backside and smiling at her surprise.

"What do you mean?" She asked confused

"Here baby" He reached into the pocket of his leather jacket as he pulled it over his broad shoulders he pulled out a money clip full of folded bills. She accepted them with a confused look on her face but grabbed her jacket all the same.

"What are you talking about Esa, I'm not coming on your mission, am I?" He helped her put her jacket on and turned her around chuckling at her confusion.

"Of course not, but you are coming into town with us. Wicki's girl is coming too with the truck. You girls are going to bring a few of us to town to get our supplies. It cuts down on suspicion when we go into town with a couple of women. Plus, you need a new dress sweetheart." He playfully tugged aside the collar of his oversized shirt and dug his face into her neck and chest kissing her as she giggled a little.

"Damn it Donowitz, if you and your girl aren't down here in 2 minutes I'm comin' up and pullin' you off of her I don't care if you're naked of not!"

Donny chuckled into her neck and pulled his face away and took up her hand instead. "Come on baby, let's go."

They moved quickly down the stairs and met with Wicki and Adele, Aldo and the other Basterds were milling about the parlor.

"Jesus, you sure took your sweet fuckin' time." The Lieutenant was impatient as they moved to stand before him "Now that you're here. You and Wicki will be goin' into town with the girls actin' like the two sets of fuckin' love birds that you are. Wicki and Adele will get the guns from the miller and you and your nurse will be pickin' up the maps from our resistance contact in the pub. Now Nurse, you don't happen to speak any French do yah?" He looked hopeful as he raised his eyebrows at her.

"I do, I took 8 years of French, I'm fluent with a Riviera accent."

Aldo broke into a huge grin and clapped Donny on his shoulder "Goddamn you sumbitch, how'd you pick the most useful woman on the continent?"

Donny swelled with pride and looked down on his perfect little woman.

"Don't you even let him open his big fuckin' mouth, girl. You know better'n me how Christ awful his accent is and you don't even want to hear him try pronouncin' anything other than English."

Nili laughed a little at Donny's expense as he narrowed his eyes at his Commanding Officer.

"Get on, all of you." Aldo said nodding and dismissing the men and the two girls.

Donny put his hand on the small of Nili's back and and they followed Wicki and the tittering Adele outside to the truck.

"Cherie you never told me you speak French, how naughty of you, tisk tisk. We could have gossiped about the men without their knowing." Her big mouth curved into a saucy smile and she sent Nili a wink as they piled into the old truck. Wicki and Adele took the front seat and Donny helped Nili into the small back seat.

Pressed together in the back seat Donny put his arm around her and held her close up against him. Going into town for a mission his usual mind state was blanked. He was nothing more than a machine when he was working, he separated himself and let his body run on autopilot.

Now he was painfully aware of his body. He felt her warm body pressed against his side and the smallness of her as she intertwined their fingers over her shoulder. She and Adele were tittering on together in French, he couldn't understand a word but he didn't mind. The cadence of her voice was all he needed to calm him.

His mind replayed the months since he'd met her. The first moment he laid eyes on her and the way he'd changed since then. He felt like a man now. Before he'd just been a trigger happy putz, a piece of meat with no direction or purpose. Now he knew what it was like to think of someone else, to have someone depend on him.

He'd been scared of it before. The girls at home had made him nervous when they'd said they loved him and that they needed him. It sent an electric zing through him like a cattle fence and it always set him running. It was different now, looking down on her head of curly hair. He squeezed her fingers reassuringly and kissed the top of her head. Having this girl depend on him was the best thing he'd ever felt, he felt like a provider, like a defender, like a man should.

She took his big hand and kissed the top of it as she leaned further into him feeling the bulk of him up against her.

The drive into town was short and soon enough they were pulling into the muddy little main road. Wicki cut the truck's engine and the two couples stepped out, Adele and Nili talking excitedly in perfect French with Wicki adding in occasional comments as they walked together jovially, Donny held Nili's hand tightly and stayed quiet with his head dipped under his cap. They reached the miller and Wicki and Adele split off giving their farewells which sounded like garbled gibberish to Donny's ears. He still waved and nodded to them and then gently tugged Nili's hand on towards the small pub where they would meet their contact.

"You're really amazing, you know that?" He whispered quietly into her ear.

She giggled and hit his chest and walked on her tip toes to reach up to kiss his cheek. He laughed back at her and slid an arm around her waist kissing her lips in the middle of the streets of Clichy. He could feel eyes on them but he couldn't have cared less, the last thing on any of the minds of the people that watched was that the man kissing his girl in the streets was a Nazi bludgeoning American soldier, no, he was just some lovesick fool with a pretty sweetheart.

She pulled away from him with an indignant look on her face but it faded once she saw his smile. "You fool" she mouthed at him as she batted his arm and took up her place again as they strolled into the dimly lit pub.

"Aha, Francois! You finally bring your pretty wife for me to meet" A smooth voice said in French as the man at the table called them over. "Come come, sit, I have the expense reports for the shop all done out for you." Nili smiled prettily at him and introduced herself as "Edith" and took the seat across from the man at the table. Donny nodded silently keeping up his mute act for the few patrons of the pub.

"Now Francois, the expense are perfectly on track, your workmanship is perfect and I can even anticipate some expansion for you." He eyed Nili nodded as he punctuated each word. She understood that she was to memorize what he told her and report it back to Donny in English as soon as she could.

"Fantastic, thank you so much." Nili said patting the man's hand as she accepted the stack of papers he pushed towards her. "It is so kind of you to do business with my Francois, ever since he lost his voice it has been hard for him to run the business."

"Nonsense" The contact said shaking his head "I have never met a finer craftsman than your husband. I only wonder how he managed to snatch up such a lovely woman without words."

"Oh but sir that is why I married him of course. Every woman wants a man who never says no when she takes the chequebook." Nili laughed a little as Donny let up the ghost of a smile as he kissed the top of her head.

The contact smiled at the two and took his cue to exit "I see that you two lovers would like to spend some time alone, now that business is taken care of I'll take my leave of you. Look over those reports Francois and get me your expenses for next month as well."

Nili nudged Donny and he took his cue to nod to the man as he rose and left. Donny and Nili rose after him and both parties left the pub and went their separate ways on the small street. Donny tugged Nili down the road and pulled her into a large overgrown garden outside the run down old church.

"What did he tell you?" His voice was serious as he stood in front of her " I need you to repeat every word as he said it."

Nili nodded and carefully repeated the contact's translated words verbatim. Donny absorbed every word, translating the meaning in his head. The expenses were perfect, meaning the plan was on, the patrols would be running at the expected times. The workmanship is perfect, the roads were all in drivable order, no blockages or downed bridges. He expects expansion, the contact in Nadine will be waiting as discussed.

"Thank you sweetheart, you were perfect." He leaned down and kissed her thoroughly proud of how well she's done in the pub. She was perfectly composed and hadn't let the severity of the mission effect her.

He stepped back from her and sighed deeply, now he'd have to break from her. He and Wicki would take their catches and meet up with the rest of the men who'd reached town on foot by now. They'd fade into the woods and make their way to the Nadine Road.

"I have to go now baby." He whispered against her lips as he stole little kisses in between.

"I know." Her voice was tinged with sadness as she pressed herself closer to him.

He wrapped her closer in his arms and laid his cheek against her hair taking in the soft smells of her committing her sensory experience to memory.

"You take that money I gave you and buy yourself whatever you want, okay? Get yourself new dresses, new shoes, jewelry. I've been savin' that up for a while. It's kraut money but they sure love it here."

She nodded against his chest but the money was the last thing on her mind. He was consuming her thoughts now. She only wanted to stay in his arms forever.

"Come on, baby." He said quietly as he pulled away from her. "Go meet Adele outside the pub and have fun with her. I'll be back tonight."

Nili nodded and kissed him slowly, savoring the feel of him just for one more moment. After she pulled away and he turned his back and walked out of the garden.

She sighed and leaned against a large statue of the Virgin Mary. She looked up and ran her hand over the feet of the statue, it reminded her of the yard of the hospital in Sicily. She remembered their long afternoons together in the sun where she'd first fallen in love with the loud mouthed soldier who wouldn't take no for an answer.

She was caught up in her own thoughts hugging herself against the white marble. She didn't hear the set of heavy boots come up from the back of the garden. She did see the shadow moving from her left and she turned just as he pinned her against the large statue pedestal.

"I was waiting for that ignoramus to finally leave you." His voice was butter smooth and in it she heard the notes of something sinister.


	13. Thirteen

Her breath became a brick in her throat.

"I don't know why you kid yourself with him. He's not the least bit worthy of you." He ran slim cold fingers over her cheek. She was a deer in headlights, big eyed and frozen. "You're too lovely. You should be with a man who could provide for you. With him you'll starve, your children will wear rags, you'll have to scrape by in the tenements of his vulgar city." He ran his fingers down her neck and moved his face close into her to take in her scent at her neck. "I could give you the world, my darling. Just choose me and I'll give you anything your heart desires. You'll be the richest lady in the neighborhood when I take you back to York."

He drew his fingers down her neck and trailed them down the center of her chest. Her mind was screaming at her body to move but she caught sight of the large pistol he purposefully displayed nestled under his jacket and all thought was gone again. He pressed himself up against her trapping her against the cold marble behind her and his looming body.

"I'll take you to premieres, drape you in the finest silks and jewelry money can buy. You will want for nothing."

She couldn't find her voice in her throat.

"You see, I find myself more drawn to you than any other woman I've encountered. You've bewitched me since the first, and seeing you with him is torture." He grew bold and ran his hands up down grabbing up both of her hands and holding them in an iron grasp before she could get up the facilities to move them of her own accord. He pulled them behind her back and held them tight with one hand pressing himself against her and leaving one hand free to rove her neck.

"I find myself obsessed with the idea of possessing you for my own." She shrieked a little but he roughly pushed her further into the hard lines of marble at her back and made sure she saw his gun again. "If I cannot have you I don't know quite what I'll do." He said reverting back to his nonchalance as he groped her. She trembled but she would not let tears fall, she prayed for her Sergeant to walk back into the garden and save her.

"You see, I'm terribly used to getting everything I desire. Money, status..." His voice trailed off and he pressed himself into her further as he moved his mouth to her ear "Women. No one says 'no' to me. No one."

Nili felt white hot fear chill her from her neck outward to every inch of her body he touched. She was immobile with panic, her body a prison as her mind raced trying like a trapped animal to formulate an exit strategy.

"What the fuck do you think you're doin'?" Nili had never felt so such comfort from hearing one voice.

The Lieutenant advanced on them quickly, pistol out as Hicox released her and stepped away. She dropped to her knees her legs giving out from the relief that flooded her.

"I was simply presenting the lady with other options." Hicox said smoothly adjusting himself.

Aldo could barely contain his rage. He wanted nothing more than to shoot that rat bastard dead here and now, but he had intelligence that they needed and he couldn't risk the lives of all of his men over his indecency, as much as he wanted to. He hoped she'd understand.

"It looked to me like you were assaultin' my nurse." Aldo growled out as he held the gun to Hicox. Instead of relinquishing Hicox calming pulled out his own side arm and cocked it back pointing it back at Aldo.

"I wasn't giving her anything she hasn't already had." His voice made her sick and his words made her sicker. She felt worthless and dirty sitting before the two men.

"You shut your mouth boy or I swear I don't care what you know or how much you're worth to your government; cause you ain't worth a lick to me and I got no qualms with blowin' your fuckin' nuts off, then your head."

Hicox chuckled "I see, but are you willing to risk your entire mission on it? You see Leftenant, you not only gamble yourself in this little Mexican stand off we have here, you gamble away the lives of every single one of your men. It would be a shame if they were to be compromised because you wanted to shoot me over the Bear's whore. We're not so far from the village that gunshots wouldn't be heard." He walked smoothly towards his left and Aldo countered following along keeping his pistol level with Hicox's crotch.

"Sure enough the proper authorities, the proper Nazi authorities would hear, as well as your men, and they would all converge... just here, all together."

Aldo swallowed deep and his mind worked furiously, He hated this fucker more than he'd ever hated anyone, but damn if he wasn't right. He couldn't risk his men, he couldn't risk the mission, not even for Donny, not even for his helpless little woman.

Aldo sighed deep and dropped down his gun. "You're right." Aldo said hanging his head in defeat.

Nili was frozen again.

"I know I am." Hicox countered "Now if you'll excuse me, I believe I'd better meet my team." With that he clicked his heels and swaggered out of the garden like a man who'd just received a medal of honor.

"Come 'ere" Aldo said gesturing to Nili as he got down on his knees in front of her. She quickly flung herself into his arms and began to sob "I know, I know." he said patting her hair, his own voice was thick and Nili could tell he hated himself for what he had to do. "You unnerstand though, right? I couldn't kill 'im. I couldn't put my men in danger."

She nodded into his chest and tried to stop the flow of her tears but they just kept coming from her humiliation.

"I swear to you. After tomorrow night in Nadine I'll kill him. I'll gut him like a fuckin' pig and hang him out to dry. No man can ever lay his hands on a woman like that. Let alone one I know and care about."

He pulled her away from him and placed his hands on her shoulders "Now get a hold of yourself. You can't breath a word of this to anyone. Not to Adele, not to Smithson, and especially not to Donny."

She tried to catch her breath but she was still hiccuping with sobs. She managed to nod though.

"I know it's gonna be hard but I need you to act like this never happened. I swear to you I'll watch that bastard like a hawk and he won't be allowed near you again. Once Donny's done he'll be with you every waking moment until tomorrow. All you have to do is last through tonight and I swear to you he'll breath his last tomorrow. You trust me, right?"

Her mind raced and she tried to make sense of everything that had just happened to her, but she knew Aldo was right, she knew she had to hold it together. Donny couldn't find out. He'd go mad with rage. He'd kill Hicox on the spot and put every man in his brigade in danger.

"I... I understand" She stuttered out before wiping her nose and eyes "I trust you."

Aldo smiled a sad smile and pulled her close into his chest again and stroked her hair. His heart ached for the girl and by God he'd set things right for her if it was the last thing he did. "Good girl" He reassured her "You're a hell of a woman. A strong woman. You can do it."

Aldo held her until she'd gained control of herself and once she'd quieted he let her go and helped her stand up.

"Now I've got to set out, you go find Wicki's girl and get back to the house. I'll bring your man back safe to you tonight, I swear it to you." He patted her shoulder and kissed her forehead like an older sibling and then walked off leaving her by herself for a second time in the garden, only this time she was sure she was alone.

She still moved quickly, turning sharply in the opposite direction and heading out to the street where she took deep breaths to gain her composure.

"Cherie! My little friend, there you are! I have been searching for you!" She sighed hearing Adele's voice, she didn't know why but she felt reassured in the presence of the other girl, less vulnerable.

"Adele" She called out speeding up to meet the other girl and embracing her trying not to let her puffy eyes betray her. Adele was quick though and she grabbed Nili's chin and held her where she could see her face

"Little Nili, you've been crying, are you so sad to see your lover go? I promise you he will come back safely." She tutted and kissed both of Nili's cheeks before throwing her arm around her shoulders and pulling her along the street "Come, we will shop together a little and try to forget all that makes us upset."

Nili took a deep breath and decided to do just that. She wouldn't think about Hicox at all, she would strike him from her memory. She thanked God that he hadn't violated her. She had no doubts that if Aldo had not interrupted he would have grown bolder. But she knew Aldo wouldn't let him touch her again. She trusted him. She trusted him enough where she knew that Hicox would not be long for harassing her.

* * *

this is a bit short. but i promise the next will be longer and feature some surprising things! if you're reading this too, why not review it. tell me if you like the direction it's goign in, really anything.


	14. Fourteen

Nili was quiet that night. Donny took careful notice, although she brought forth a tenderness in him she did not totally quell the instincts of his predator's mind. He picked up on her jerky movements, the monosyllables she answered in, the almost imperceptible tightening of her muscles when anyone, even himself, came into contact with her.

He sat next to and had his arm slung protectively over the back of her chair. She did not shy away from him completely, she had her shoulder angled into his chest as if she were backed into him to defend against an attack from behind. He could almost smell the fear radiating off of her.

This was not right. There was nothing she should be scared of. Something must have happened while they were on patrol.

"Don… Donny… Donowitz!" He was drawn out of his line of thought by Aldo calling to him from across the table where the Basterds were eating a hearty dinner cooked by the Madame and her girls.

"Yeah Aldo?"

"I was asking' you 'bout the road you checked out today. Whaddaya reckon?"

Donny was back to business, his mind temporarily straying from his little woman. "Well, the road's old. We staked it out and the only traffic that passed by was a farmer and his old cart horse. Wicki and I checked the ground, we couldn't place any vehicle tracks, that road looks like the best bet, Aldo."

The end of his thought was punctuated by a sardonic chuckle from the other side of the table. "A viable option, if the objective is rousing the suspicion of the locals. Think about it Sergeant, if there's no vehicle tracks then no vehicles cross that road, our truck will leave fresh tracks that will be traced back to this house and to the check point in Nadine. Really, man, it's the first lesson in espionage. It's a miracle you haven't gotten a bullet in your ape's skull yet."

Donny's eyes darkened as he seethed at the dapper officer across the table. "You shut your mouth, you son of a bitch." Donny said darkly feeling his hackles rise.

"Easy, you neanderthal, I was only pointing out the flaws in your plan"

"Well," Aldo grated out grinding his teeth in Hicox's direction "What do you suggest?"

Hicox allowed himself a victor's chuckle again "I suggest the road to the South. It's mainly used as a freight road, trucks moving by at all hours from the depths and ages of the tire tracks. We could easily pass as farmers bringing in produce or what have you. The Nazis stationed around here are lazy, mostly old men and boys with barely any chest hair they don't care enough for checkpoints. It should be a 'cake walk' as you Yanks would put it."

Aldo blew out a long stream of air and mulled over what Hicox imparted to him. Damned if he wasn't right. The man may be a piece of shit, but he was a damned good tactile solider.

"Fair enough, Hicox." Aldo said hiding the disdain in his voice well with an air of authority "We'll head out tomorrow on the South road; we'll take Marie's truck and pack you boys in the back with some feed bags. Wicki you'll drive since you actually speak the damn language, Hicox you speak a little French too don'tcha?"

The Brit nodded curtly

"Aaahright then, you'll ride with him."

The men quietly consented to the plan and then returned their thoughts to their food, all except for the Staff Sergeant. He watched instead as Nili pushed her food around her plate as opposed to actually eating it. He tried to comfort her by twirling a spiral curl around his finger at her back. She looked up at him briefly, giving an attempt at her usual smile, but it was only a ghost's attempt.

"You okay, baby?" He couldn't help himself from asking it aloud, her behaviors were only making him more concerned.

"Just fine." She said in a mild tone.

He gave her an appraising look, but decided it would have to wait until they were alone. He planted a firm kiss on her temple then tried to keep his attention on his food.

What the Sergeant didn't notice, even with his keen eye was the nervous glances his Commanding Officer kept sending towards the little nurse, and the hawk's eye the British man was appraising him with.

Hicox could still feel her beneath him, her taunt little body trembling with fear. Initially it had almost put him off. He hadn't wanted her to be afraid of him, he'd wanted her to give into him, to lust after him as he lusted after her. But feeling the nervous energy she radiated, the trembles and the gooseflesh that rose across her heated chest had give him another rush altogether, one he decided he preferred. It made him feel powerful, a sort of dangerous masculinity he was unaccustomed to.

He kept his eyes on his food, he didn't need to appraise her, not out in the open where the big ape might notice. The only hinderance was the Lieutenant's new distrust for him. He flicked his eyes over to the older man and watched him out of the corner of his eye.

Aldo had ruined his moment that day. The feeling of domination he had felt with her pinned underneath him had been almost exquisite. It was a feeling he wanted to draw out for as long as he possibly could and the ignorant cur had barged in. Didn't he understand the rush he was getting? It was like replacing a fine scotch with lukewarm water the way he quelled the feeling. He would have to be careful around him now, tread on eggshells so as not to arouse his already heightened suspicions. But he would have her again, he most certainly would.

Her appetite was gone the second he sat at the table. She watched as he sat with the ease of a well versed predator. His lanky frame draped over the chair in the appearance of the laziest ease, yet she knew in the span of half a breath he could be up and towering over her. Donny's large frame at her back felt like her only protection from his glances. HIs presence should have comforted her, but she was finding that it wasn't doing as much for her sense of security as it should. She knew he sensed the nervousness in her, and she knew he would be asking questions. She wondered if she would be able to hold her facade once they were alone. She was unsure if she could hold off the tears and blurting out the days events and Hicox's untoward advances.

They finished dinner without incident and Nili busied herself helping Adele and Marie clean the plates and silverware. She couldn't help but be a little amazed at the efficiency with which Marie ran the house. The Basterds were able to exist within the walls at the same time as the clients without ever being seen or heard. They moved like ghosts at Marie's beck and call, keeping to their rooms and away form the receiving parlor. The kitchen where they spent the majority of their waking hours was set far back in the old house, Nili guessed it was built to serve in much the same way, to keep the staff hidden away from the house owners.

Nili had even become accustomed to seeing the dirtiest workings of the whore house, she would see girls emerge from their rooms at the end of the night in various states of undress, she would see the Basterds emerge red faced and sated after them. She now knew the women only as women, other human beings who'd had to resort to their profession not out of lack of moral but out of necessity, and she could find herself almost respecting the brave girls who faced the harshest of judgements with a devil may care type of assurance.

As she helped Adele Donny sat in at the kitchen table watching her. He cleaned his pistol quietly and a cigarette dangled form his mouth. His mind was wandering form his task though. He was still puzzling over Nili's agitation. He knew Hicox had to be involved, his gut was screaming it, and in his line of work the gut instinct was prized.

She was deeply immersed in conversation with Adele, tittering on in French when he looked up. She wouldn't notice if he left the room for a moment. He set down his gun quietly and made sure the door made little sound as he closed it behind him. He padded through the house, Hicox was not in the parlor with a few of the other men, nor was he in the study with Aldo. He must have been upstairs, by himself, isolated; just the way Donny wanted him. He made his way upstairs as soundlessly as his big form would allow. Ashe reached the top he spied his prey. Perfect.

Hicox was swaggering his way down the hall, whistling a jaunty tune to himself. His own melody covered the sound of his attackers advance and before he knew what had hit him his face was buried up against the wall and his arms were twisted painfully behind his back.

"What did you do to her?"

A chuckled reverberated from against the wall. "A gentleman doesn't kiss and tell."

Donny slammed his face a little harder into the wall "What the fuck are you getting at?"

"Fuck would be the operative word, ape."

Donny felt a wave of rage seethe through him "What do you mean you limp dicked Limey?"

"I mean," He said with an air of superiority "That your nurse is a tight little fuck. Eager too."

Donny rammed his knee between Hicox's legs and reveled in the gust of wind that flew from his chest.

Hicox took a moment to recover but kept on as he had "I found her in that little garden…" He wheezed out "She came right to me, and I bent her over out in the open. She wanted it, and she loved it. She said she wanted to loved by a man, not an ignorant monster."

Donny was overpowered by rage. He knew he was a heartbeat away from fucking killing this bastard. His rational mind told him there was absolutely no truth to this what so ever, but there was no room for rationality to stand in the face of the anger he felt bubbling up inside of him.

He bashed Hicox's skull into the wall once more before throwing him to the ground and flying towards his room.

There was no way she would have fucked him. No way. She was his and his alone. She was going to be his wife. He was going to have kids with her. They were going to make it through this war and go home to Boston and live happily ever after. There was no way she would throw that out.

But the poison found it's way into his thoughts. What if she did? He knew he wasn't good enough for her. She was so smart and well spoken. She could speak French and he could barely speak proper English. What if she was sick of him? What if she had been seduced by Hicox's pretty flowery words. What if she realized just how much he didn't deserve her.

He flew down the stairs and out the front door slamming the old wood behind him. He felt the jingle of a few francs in his pocket and he knew enough to say "Whiskey" and "more" in French, and for tonight, that was all he needed. He wouldn't be back tonight.


	15. Fifteen

Nili heard the door slam reverberate as far away as the kitchen. It startled her terribly and she jumped along with Adele.

"Oh my, what on earth was that?" Adele asked worriedly as she set the plate she had been drying down.

"Someone leaving in quite a hurry." Nili said furrowing her brow, she knew there was only one man in this house big enough to make the very foundation shake with his departure.

She and Adele both crept into the parlor to see what had occurred. They found Hirschberg and Stiglitz tending to their weapons. Hirschberg was oiling the wood butt of his rifle and Stiglitz was running the blade of his knife over a strop on his foot.

"Stiglitz, what was that?" Adele ventured as the stern faced soldier looked up at her.

"Donowitz." His terse answer affirmed Nili's fears. He had left in a rage, a rage about something and by the way Stiglitz appraised her she knew he thought she had something to do with it.

Adele turned to her and cocked her head to the side "Why on earth would he be upset? I cannot think of a reason, why just a moment ago he was sitting so nicely with us in the kitchen.

"I heard a slam from upstairs. Sounded like he put something through a wall. Crazy fuck. He needs to check himself into a loony bin with a temper like that." Hirschberg mumbled agitated by the attention the Bear Jew's temper garnered him.

"Stop that." Nili snapped at him "He is not crazy, something must have upset him. I will say that I had no hand in it that I know of."

Just as she finished Aldo stepped into the parlor with a stern look on his face "Did I hear that Donowitz went out?"

"Yes." Hugo replied not bothering to look up from his methodical task.

"Well shit" Aldo muttered before he turned on his heel and went upstairs.

He knew Hicox must have had something to do with this. That rat bastard just had to push his luck. He couldn't just let lie and leave the woman alone. He couldn't hold his tongue in front of the Bear Jew. He wanted to wring the rat bastard's neck.

He found Hicox just where he thought he would. Crouched against the wall holding his johnson. Aldo guessed Donny must have delivered him a token of his appreciation before he left.

"What the fuck did you do?" Aldo asked moving to stand over Hicox's crumpled form.

The Limey had the nerve to look up at him with a crooked smile "I just told him the way of things." He said easily.

Aldo kicked him swiftly in the shin, hard enough to make him question if he broke it. Hicox took the blow with only a flinch. "What did you say to him?"

"I told him I fucked his girl." Hicox said flatly.

"You lying sack ah shit." Aldo muttered kicking him again in the stomach and leaving him sputtering and laughing to himself, pleased at his insurrection.

Aldo sauntered down the stairs with a grim face. "Utivich!" He called once he reached the bottom of the stairs "Stiglitz, Hirschberg, get up, we're goin' to find Donny, now."

Nili was immediately alarmed "Aldo, what happened? Where's Donny?"

Aldo gave her a stern look, but didn't answer. He brushed past her and moved to the kitchen to collect his gun.

"Plus." Donny muttered his voice rough with the burn of his whiskey. The bartender gave his slurred speech a skeptical look but refilled his glass. As far as he was concerned his francs were still good.

Donny sipped the drink slow and deep. His throat was long used to the burn and his tongue barely registered the rich flavor. It was just a means to an end for him, an end that required him to blitz himself until he couldn't remember why he was angry. Until he couldn't remember the look on Hicox's face or the sting of Nili's possible betrayal.

He sat by himself at the end of the bar, the collar of his jacket was flipped up high and his wool cap was pulled down low. He'd been there for hours already. He couldn't remember how many times he'd seen the bottom of his glass, but he'd reckon it had been over five, well over five. No one had bothered to talk to him. They could sense that he was a man to be left alone.

He could feel his mind glazing over. His vision blurring between seeing one glass of whiskey and two. He took a deep breath and slugged down the remainder of his drink. He tossed the rest of his money on the counter and gave the bartender a curt nod.

He managed to navigate himself out of the bar and onto the dark street stumbling a little as he made his way.

Aldo had returned hours ago without Donny. They searched the surrounding woods for him but found nothing. They hadn't ventured into town, but they knew Donny wouldn't have ventured there in his right mind. He wouldn't last an hour in a town swarming with Nazis with his accent. The managed to sneak about fine during the day with others, but at night one was more liable to get stopped and a stop would lead to questioning.

Nili sat on the couch wringing her hands. She couldn't sleep without knowing. Smithson sat up with her, he read in the large armchair in the corner of the room across from her. He knew they didn't need conversation, she just needed someone with her.

Her mind reeled with images of Donny hurt out and alone. She pictured him in the clutches of the SS, his body battered and beaten, tortured. She wept silently to herself, the tears running tracks down her cheeks. She crinkled a handkerchief between her hands but made no move to try to wipe her eyes, as long as he was out the tears wouldn't stop. She couldn't help but wonder what had set him off. Aldo had refused to acknowledge Donny's absence aside from a muttered "Couldn't find 'im" upon his return and the other men were just as clueless as she.

Donny would down the narrow alley way his large shoulder dragging against the side of one building for support. He rubbed at his eyes trying to free himself from the double vision that was plaguing him. He knew he had to get back to the whorehouse, he just wasn't quite sure in which direction he should go. The landmarks of the town all looked familiar but he couldn't piece them together in his current state of disrepair.

As he neared the end of the alley he noted a shadow about to cross in front of the other end. He waited in the depths until the tell tale olive drab uniform (or was it uniforms?) passed in front of him. He couldn't stall his mouth as he watched the soldier pass.

"Hey you kraut son of a bitch." he called out in a motley slur.

The soldier stopped dead and turned immediately towards him. He drew a side arm and sped quickly towards the sound of Donny's voice. Donny had the mental prowess to shield himself in shadow as the officer drew closer.

He called out in some kraut gibberish as he paused just before he reached the dark of the shadows where Donny hid. He fired off a warning shot into the dark that whizzed just passed Donny's right shoulder. He kept deadly quiet as he tried to focus his vision on the man in front of him.

The german soldier searched the dark with his eyes but couldn't pin point Donny, and then he took that fateful step. The one that brought him just within Donny's range.

Donny was on him before the man even had the chance to fire off another shot. Donny used his brute strength to shatter the man's trigger arm. He knocked the man down and started swinging wildly. His inebriation lead his blows astray quite a few times and the kraut landed a few strong blows, but the lithe well kept man was no match for the brute rage of the Bear Jew.

Donny pounded his fists in the direction his double vision led him. He felt the rush of the kill filling him as his hands felt the man's face bones crush under his blows. He heard the man's grunts turn to gargles and then the struggle stopped.

Donny's breathing was labored as he looked down on the mangled form of what had once been a man beneath him. He let out a shaking breath as he stood and looked down at the blood running from his mangled fists. The liquor in his veins dulled the pain, but his mind still registered that his current appearance was a problem. He moved to the end of the alley, the streets were empty, he was lucky. He moved quickly and quietly staying to the shadows until he reached the edge of town and the sanctuary of the woods.

It was nearly light out when a noise at the door roused her awake. The door banged open and heavy foot falls trailed in. The sight that greeted her made her breath hitch.

Donny stumbled through the doorway, his hair was disheveled and his shirt was torn under his jacket. His face held streaks of blood and his hands were brown with the dried coagulant.

"Esa!" She squeaked out as she ran to him. As soon as he heard her voice his back stiffened. His sudden rigidness made her stop in her tracks. She was feet away but she could already smell the booze on him.

"Whadda you want." He slurred out narrowing his eyes. "Hicox indisposed? Bet you didn't think I knew that word… in-dis-posed." He trailed off pushing roughly passed her She turned and her eyes widened and filled with tears.

"Esa…" She couldn't find words "What?"

Donny turned quickly and had to hold the door frame to the kitchen for support. "He told me you fucked him." He spit out "I asked you to marry me and you fucked some Limey scum." He teetered a little unsteady on his feet "Well… I don't need you, you zona" he bit down with seething rage on every word.

Nili reeled back from his verbal attack. She did not shy away though, instead she ran to him and grasped at his arms. "Esa, you know it's not true. I would never. I love you. He tried to touch me, he tried to hurt me but I didn't do anything with him, don't you see. Ask Aldo, he found me and saved me." The tears flowed freely as she tried to make her words breach the walls of his fogged mind.

His eyes tracked back and forth over the floor trying to process what she said. He felt his rage seeping away, as well as his strength. He slowly slumped against the wall to the floor and she followed down with him.

"I was so afraid…" He whispered out, his voice barely above a whisper "I thought you realized that I was no good for you. I don't deserve you."

Nili pushed herself into the circle of his arms on his lap and ran her hands through his hair as she tried to comfort him "No, no, no. Never." She whispered over and over repeating her mantra to try to soothe him.

"No" He protested, yet he pulled her closer into his lap pressing his head against her chest "Nili, you're so smart and beautiful. I'm scared one day you'll realize that. I'm scared I won't be able to make you happy, give you what you deserve." The liquor was freeing his tongue and making him honest as he needed to be.

"Oh Esa, all I need is you." She breathed out "I was so scared you were lost today, so scared you were hurt."

He took a deep shaking breath and she swore she could feel the moist warmth of tears against her breast "I left, I let that bastard get to me and I left and got drunk."

"I know." She said quietly. She wanted so badly to ask about the blood, she knew something had happened.

He took a few more breaths and then he answered her questions without her having to ask "I killed a Kraut soldier." He whispered.

Her mind froze and she was gripped with fear "You.. what?"

His eyes stared straight at something untraceable and he breathed out the same again "I killed a kraut soldier."

"How?"

"I beat him to death with my bare hands. I broke every bone in his face. He was struggling so hard, but I was stronger, and then he started gurgling, and then it all went quiet."

Her breath stopped and it was a moment before she could speak again.

"Did anyone see you?"

"No." He said flatly.

She rocked a little in his lap and let out the breath she had been holding in.

"Well, it'll all be okay then." She whispered "It'll all be fine."

"I love you." He whispered "Please don't think I'm a monster."

She sighed deeply and hugged him closer before gently trying to pull him up "I love you too Esa, come along, come to bed with me."

He nodded in docile consent and took her hand, allowing himself to surrender to his inebriation and the tenderness of her touch. He knew in that moment that he could never forsake her again, or question her love for him. This woman was his perfection, she would love him even in spite of himself, and he vowed that he would do the same.


End file.
